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Boko Haram has evolved from a local terrorist group to a regional and global security threat....Since then, Boko Haram has increased its frequency of terror attacks in Nigeria, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, and expanded geographically to launching attacks in other West and Central African countries, such as Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. ...snip.... The U.S. support is also coming rather late in the game. The U.S. commitment of troops in Cameroon came only after China, Russia, Germany and France had already committed to help Cameroon, through defense cooperation agreements (Russia) and by providing sophisticated military equipment (China, Germany) and...

'Tacit' deal between US, Russia to end Syria war: Assad adviser AFP 6 hours ago Damascus (AFP) - Russia and the United States have reached a "tacit agreement" on ending Syria's bloody crisis, a senior adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said.

World | Wed Sep 23, 2015 3:40pm EDT Related: World Syria says would welcome Russian army base in Latakia: Interfax MOSCOW The Syrian ambassador in Moscow said on Wednesday Damascus would welcome the deployment of a Russian military base in the city of Latakia (Lattakia) if Moscow decides to build one there, Interfax news agency reported.

New York, September 16, 2015--The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores a decree signed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko today which, according to a copy viewed by CPJ, bans at least 41 international journalists and bloggers from Ukraine for one year. The journalists and bloggers were among 388 people named as representing an "actual or potential threat to national interests, national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," according to news reports. "We are dismayed by President Poroshenko's actions, including a ban on dozens of international media covering Ukraine," CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. "While the...

(Translated via Google Translator) Russia has information that the US know the specific location point of the "Islamic State" (extremist organization banned in Russia), but did not give an order to strike on the positions "of the IG," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. In the program "Sunday times" on the "First Channel" Lavrov said that the US government "was not originally a very carefully created a coalition, or conspired to it so that it is not the goals that have been declared." According to the Foreign Minister, the coalition was created spontaneously, "just a few days it was announced...

...snip... However, it is important to understand why Russia chose this moment to move, when it could have done so at any time. ...snip... With Mr. al-Assad now controlling only 17 per cent of the country, and fighting on an axis running from Damascus, Homs, Aleppo and Latakia (oddly enough the centres of Alawite and Christian populations), the fear is that without any discernible moderate opposition the groups best positioned to take advantage of an Assad collapse are IS – the best organized – and any number of splinter Islamist groups such as the al-Nusra Front. IS was not spawned...

“Let me put it a different way. During the rule of Communism, Russia found itself in the grip of a culture of death, but she is returning to life, in the sense of Christian culture with a strong awareness of the historical roots and continuity.” The situation in the West is the complete opposite. We celebrate death and have surrendered to the satanic view of man in a self-righteous rage and rant against God. We can divorce with ease on-line. We prioritise work and career above family responsibilities especially raising children. We favour euthanasia, abortion on demand, homosexual rights and...

On Monday, an eerily familiar scene in the streets of Kiev heralded a dangerous new phase in the Ukraine crisis. Once again, riot police faced angry demonstrators who claimed that the government was betraying their country; once again, blood spilled on the pavement, resulting in at least one death and over 100 injuries. This time, however, the players’ roles had shifted. The ones fighting the government were grenade-wielding members of Svoboda and Right Sector, radical militants who had, until that point, been allied with Kiev. Their target was the democratically elected, Western-leaning government of Petro Poroshenko which is working on...

i24news Published August 31st 2015 10:08pm Russian jets take to Syrian skies to combat IS Russia begins military intervention against IS in Syria; IS closes in on Damascus Russian fighter pilots, jets and helicopters will begin arriving in Syria in the coming days to join in the offensive against the Islamic State (IS) and rebel-aligned targets within the failing state Israeli news site Ynet News reported Monday. According to Western diplomats, Russian expeditionary forces have already arrived in Syria to set up camp in an Assad-controlled airbase near Damascus, and will operate as a Russian forward operating base. Thousands of...

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Wednesday called for a coalition to combat terrorism in the Middle East. Opening a meeting with Putin in Moscow, el-Sissi said "the Egyptian people" are hoping for broader ties with Russia in all areas, particularly in fighting terrorism in the Middle East. El-Sissi's Russian visit, his second in the past three months, highlights Moscow's attempts to expand its influence in Egypt at a time when Egyptian-U.S. relations have soured in the aftermath of the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

When Russia annexed Crimea, the Kremlin installed a reputed gangster known as "the Goblin" to run the peninsula. When Moscow's agents abducted Estonian law enforcement officer Eston Kohver, they used a mafia-run smuggling ring to set him up. And of course, organized crime groups have played a prominent role in the Moscow-instigated conflicts in Transdniester, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Donbas. It has become something of a cliche to call Vladimir Putin's Russia a "mafia state." But cliche or not, the term actually fits. Not just because the Kremlin and organized crime groups are closely linked. And not just because Moscow...

One of the pillars of President Vladimir Putin’s new national ideology is that Russia should occupy the Soviet Union’s onetime prominent place in the world. That aspiration, however, keeps hitting snags in areas where the Soviet Union excelled, such as space launches and ice hockey. These misfires may present a bigger threat to Putin’s regime than falling living standards.

The trial of Dzhokar Tsarnaev has gripped America, but in Russia the Boston bomber’s trial has received little media coverage, with even the arrival of five Tsarnaev family members from Russia to testify receiving no attention. The relatives are staying in Massachusetts over the weekend, after a sick juror meant their testimony for the defence could not be heard on Thursday. But Russian state-controlled media has shown little interest in their trip to the US, and a decision appears to have been taken that the Tsarnaevs’ links to Russia should be played down. On 8 April, the jury convicted Tsarnaev...