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Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, hosted routine talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Astana on November 9. At the customary, post-meeting press conference, Tokayev said little that was new, yet his delivery marked a notable departure from the past. He opened his remarks in Kazakh, not Russian. Tokayev’s rhetoric included the usual platitudes concerning the strength of bilateral relations, which he said were underpinned by “unshakable values of mutual respect and trust.” He went on to “confirm Kazakhstan is committed to the strategic direction of further strengthening comprehensive cooperation with Russia.” But in making top Russian officials in attendance, including...

The Wednesday essay, titled "The March for Israel Was a Hate Rally," and penned by The Nation's sports editor Dave Zirin, begins by calling the roughly 290,000 strong rally's crowd likely "inflated," despite the author having seen a "massive turnout."Organizers claimed 290,000 people attended the rally, with an additional 250,000 watching via live stream​​, making it the largest pro-Israel gathering in American history.Describing it as a "political event like nothing I've seen in two decades of covering rallies in this town," Zirin claims the "incessant calls to keep bombing Gaza" made the event a "celebration not just of war but...

Americans’ already-negative opinions of Russia have soured further in the past year, dropping ... to 9%.

In an effort to distract attention from its losses in Ukraine and obfuscate its war on Ukrainian civilians, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations accused the United States, the United Kingdom and unnamed other Western countries of launching “the largest in history war by proxy with Russia using Ukrainians and ready to go “until the last Ukrainian”. He then claimed that it was Ukraine and its Western supporters, not Russia, who started the war. It’s time to set the record straight. Leading up to Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, Russia fervently insisted that it had no plans to...

After two months of fighting, Russia has now lost 873 tanks, 179 aircraft, 21,800 troops... and the pride of its navy is lying on the bottom of the Black Sea Ukraine's land forces released new figures today, suggesting more than 21,000 Russian troops have died A total of 873 tanks are said to have been destroyed, along with 2,238 armoured vehicles and 333 aircraft The flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet - the Moskva - sank last week after being hit by a Ukrainian missile Putin's troops pulled back from Kyiv in late March, suffering low morale amid stiff resistance...

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — The campers, some clad in combat fatigues, carefully aim their assault rifles. Their instructor offers advice: Don’t think of your target as a human being. So when these boys and girls shoot, they will shoot to kill. Most are in their teens, but some are as young as 8 years old. They are at a summer camp created by one of Ukraine’s radical nationalist groups, hidden in a forest in the west of the country, that was visited by The Associated Press. The camp has two purposes: to train children to defend their country from Russians...

Russian president Vladimir Putin called collusion between Trump and Russia “utter nonsense” during a joint press conference Monday.WATCH:(video at link)“We should be guided by facts. Could you name a single fact that would definitively prove the collusion?” Putin asked a reporter who asked about collusion.“It is utter nonsense. Just like the president recently mentioned. The public at large in the United States had a certain perceived opinion of the candidates during the campaign, but there is nothing particularly extraordinary about it,” he continued. “That’s the usual thing. President Trump, when he was a candidate–he mentioned the need to restore the...

Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed talk of Russian influence on the 2016 U.S. election as “utterly ridiculous,” but said that only facts were leaked following the hacking of Democratic groups. Fox News host Chris Wallace was asking Putin about special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment Friday of 12 Russian military intelligence officers accused of hacking a number of Democratic officials as part of the Russian effort to tip the 2016 election in President Trump’s favor. “Do you really believe that someone acting from the Russian territory could have influenced the United States and influenced the choice of millions of Americans?” Putin...

Kaspersky no longer legal on US public sector networks President Trump has signed into law an order banning the use of Kaspersky Lab products within US government organisations. For months, government officials have been clearing the Moscow-based cyber security company's products from the networks of US federal agencies, a task that is now more-or-less completed. Kaspersky has been accused of allowing its anti-virus software to be used by Russian intelligence to exfiltrate information from the PCs of US government officials, although little evidence has been presented to back-up such claims. The ban is included in a new defense policy spending...

U.S. intelligence officials now believe with "a high level of confidence" that Russian President Vladimir Putin became personally involved in the covert Russian campaign to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, senior U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News. Two senior officials with direct access to the information say new intelligence shows that Putin personally directed how hacked material from Democrats was leaked and otherwise used. The intelligence came from diplomatic sources and spies working for U.S. allies, the officials said. Putin's objectives were multifaceted, a high-level intelligence source told NBC News. What began as a "vendetta" against Hillary Clinton morphed...

Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind a hacking operation that exposed the Democratic National Committee and other targets during the U.S. presidential election, according to sources speaking with NBC News. The two U.S. officials told NBC that Putin had a "vendetta" against Hillary Clinton and had a goal of exposing corruption in U.S. politics. They have "high confidence" in the intelligence they received. Putin's objectives were multifaceted, a high-level intelligence source told NBC News. What began as a "vendetta" against Hillary Clinton morphed into an effort to show corruption in American politics and to "split off key American allies by creating the...

I had never heard about this story before, but a clever and competent reader shared it on our Facebook page, and I thought some of y’all might enjoy it too. Back in 1989, card-carrying Communist and Politburo member in the Soviet Union Boris Yeltsin visited Johnson Space Center, and then took a tour of a grocery store in Clear Lake, Texas. According to a Houston Chronicle reporter, Yelstin was far more affected by the grocery store visit than he was the space center. He apparently was stunned by the aisles and aisles of supermarket products, and told the other Russians...