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The future U.S. President Donald Trump’s special representative for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, has issued a direct response to Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev, who dismissed Trump’s proposed peace plan for Ukraine, suggesting President Vladimir Putin would “tell it to go to hell.” In an interview aired on Fox News, Kellogg was adamant in his rebuttal to Malofeyev’s remarks, stating, “Better get back in your box and better understand President Trump, because clearly you don’t and you clearly do not understand the United States of America.”

Russia could end the war in Ukraine with a nuclear strike that turns the country into a "radiation zone", an ally of Vladimir Putin has chillingly warned. Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev warned that the world is "on the brink of nuclear war". Discussing the prospect of a Russian nuclear strike on Ukraine, he added: "There will be a radiation zone nobody will ever go into in our lifetime. And the war will be over." -snip- He added: "We want a long-term peace — some sort of general agreement about the global order. Trump wants to go down in history, he'll...

Kyiv knows that it will have to recalibrate and take care not to get on Trump’s bad side, hence Zelenskyy’s emphasizing the importance of exploring diplomatic solutions. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Keith Kellogg, a former national security adviser and decorated retired U.S. general, to be his special envoy to Ukraine and Russia has reassured a nervous Kyiv up to a point. Ukrainian officials are familiar with Kellogg, a peace-through-strength advocate who’s argued publicly that any deal to end the nearly three-year-long war of attrition would have to include solid security guarantees for Ukraine to ensure there’s lasting peace...

Vladimir Putin will reject Donald Trump's proposed peace plan and would only end the conflict in Ukraine if he gives him huge concessions, a hardliner close to the Kremlin has warned. Russian tycoon Konstantin Malofeyev, who is sanctioned by the West, slammed Trump's recently picked envoy Keith Kellogg and his proposals on how to end the conflict with Kyiv. 'Kellogg comes to Moscow with his plan, we take it and then tell him to screw himself, because we don't like any of it. That'd be the whole negotiation,' Malofeyev said bluntly in an interview from a luxury Dubai resort. -snip-...

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday to shelve the planned hosting of the "Friendship Games", a big multi-sports event that the International Olympic Committee had condemned as a purely political project. Russia announced last year that it planned to relaunch the competition first staged in 1984 as a Soviet-led alternative to the Los Angeles Olympics, which the USSR had boycotted in retaliation for a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games. -snip- Putin's decree, published on an official website, left open the possibility of staging the games at some point in the future pending a "special decision...

In a rather stern warning to the BRICS nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—President-elect Donald Trump has threatened 100% tariffs on their exports to the United States if they pursue efforts to replace the U.S. dollar in global trade. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Trump said that any attempt by BRICS to create a new currency or support alternatives to the dollar would lead to severe consequences. “The idea that the BRICS countries are trying to move away from the dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” Trump wrote. Trump’s warning comes on the heels...

BRICS countries show little interest in Moscow’s proposal for an alternative financial system. Browsing through the official photos of the annual BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan last month yields intriguing surprises. In several of them, Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a mock-up banknote featuring the flags of the five core BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Looking at the pictures, one could be forgiven for assuming that the BRICS had just launched a common currency. This is exactly what Moscow would like the world to think as part of its bid to demonstrate that Russia...

Donald Trump announced Saturday he would impose a 100% tariff on BRICS nations if they try to replace the dollar in international trade, impacting a group of major developing economies whose members include Russia, India, China and Iran, among others, marking the latest threats by the president-elect to impose tariffs on imports from several countries. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the 100% tariff would affect all BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates—until they commit to not creating a new BRICS currency or back another currency that could replace...

US president-elect Donald Trump on Saturday threatened tariffs of 100 per cent against the so-called Brics countries unless their governments agree not to create a new currency as an alternative to the US dollar. “The idea that the Brics Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” Trump wrote in a post to his Truth Social platform on Saturday afternoon.

A NUCLEAR armageddon will see "Russians go to heaven and the West banished to hell", a Kremlin propagandist has said in a bizarre TV rant. Top Putin crony Andrey Lugovoy - who is accused of assassinating former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko on British soil - said the dictator could "end human history" with his hypersonic nuclear arsenal. -snip- The propagandist then went on to say Putin would destroy the entire world and "end the human race" in case of a nuclear war. And that the West will go to hell. He added: "[Nuke war] will be the end of human...

The Russian rouble has plunged to its lowest level against the dollar since the immediate aftermath of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in March 2022. The ruble hit 113 against the US dollar on Thursday. On Wednesday, Russia's central bank announced it would stop foreign-currency purchases to try and strengthen the currency and ease pressures on financial markets. The ruble has been sliding since late summer, falling by more than a third since August. Oil prices have fallen in the same period, hitting Russia's earning capacity from its most important commodity. That has piled pressure onto a war economy already...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday there was no need to panic about the depreciation of the ruble in recent days, saying the Russian currency’s sometimes sharp fluctuations were related to budget payments and seasonal shifts. -snip- Putin was speaking in Astana, Kazakhstan, following a summit with leaders of a security alliance of ex-Soviet countries.

WAR crazed President Putin threatened to blast parts of Kyiv “to dust” after unleashing a missile and drone blitz that plunged a million people into blackouts. The tyrant claimed multiple strikes with his new Oreshnik hypersonic missile would be akin to a nuclear bomb. He said: “I have already said that these are quite powerful elements that are heated up to a temperature of 4,000 degrees centigrade. "Well, I don't know, you can look on the internet at the surface area of the sun, I think 5,600 to 6,000 degrees is comparable to the temperature on the surface of the...

Russia is continuing work to put its 'unstoppable' Satan II intercontinental ballistic missile - part of its terrifying strategic nuclear arsenal - on combat duty, Moscow's state media has revealed. The Satan II missile, also referred to as the RS-28 Sarmat, is designed to deliver nuclear warheads to strike targets thousands of miles away in the United States or Europe, but its development has been dogged by delays and testing setbacks. In September, Putin faced humiliation after his Satan II missile exploded, obliterating Russia's only test site for hypersonic weapons. As a result, experts said that the test programme for...

Russia has seen a huge spike in butter theft as inflation and Western sanctions send Moscow's economy into crisis. The BBC's Russia Editor, Steve Rosenberg, highlighted reports in Russian media outlining how "people are stealing butter because of high prices." He added: "Some shops have decided to sell packs of butter in security boxes to reduce theft." -snip- Meanwhile, the government newspaper in Moscow warns that interest rates could go up again despite the Russian Central Bank's already-record hike to 21%. The paper warns they could rise to 23% in December.

Vladimir Putin's new 'wonder-weapon' caused little damage when he unleashed it on Ukraine, satellite pictures show, despite Russian claims that a defence plant in Dnipro was 'erased to dust'. Furious Russian pro-war military pundits are questioning if they have been misled by Putin's boastful claims over the 'unstoppable' Oreshnik.

A general in Russia has been fired after he was accused of faking reports of battleground successes in Ukraine. Colonel General Gennady Anashkin had been the commander of the Russian Army's 'Southern Group' which is fighting in eastern Ukraine. A Russian military blogging channel, Military Informant, has claimed that 'false reports about supposedly deep successful breakthroughs' started to come from Siversk close to where Anashkin's soldiers are fighting Ukraine. -snip- His alleged sacking comes after a top Russian general was allegedly killed by British Storm Shadow missiles on November 20. The strike launched by Ukraine wiped out Lt-Gen Valery Solodchuk...

Russian food inflation remains rampant, with butter prices rising 30% since December last year. Sunflower oil and vegetables are among the other items seeing ongoing price rises. Russia's central bank last month hiked interest rates to 21% — their highest level in over 20 years — but the high rates have shown few signs of dampening inflation so far. Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied that Russia has exchanged "butter for guns," as the country's leadership has deflected blame for price rises onto "unfriendly" countries. -snip- "To say we spend too much money for guns and forget about butter —...

A half-dozen U.S. ballistic missiles, fired by Ukraine, slammed into an ammunition depot some 75 miles across the Russian border early Tuesday, setting off further detonations that turned the sky red. The following morning, 10 British-provided cruise missiles pounded the vicinity of a Kremlin-run sanatorium that was apparently used as a military headquarters, smashing one after another in the town of Marino, located in Russia’s Kursk region about 20 miles from the front line there. These two strikes, the first Kyiv launched with Western-supplied missiles after receiving authorization from the U.S. and allies, show the range of military targets now...

Vladimir Putin has not been seen or heard from in the public eye since he made World War Three nuclear threats 12 days ago, sparking suspicion about his whereabouts. Rumours of Vladimir Putin's ill health have been swirling for years. The Russian President, 72, has not been seen in 12 days since he issued apocalyptic World War Three nuclear threats over the use of long-range Western missiles by Ukraine against Russian territory. It is unclear if the Kremlin dictator is unwell, on holiday or has simply chosen to remain out of sight. According to the Faridaily Telegram channel, which monitors...