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Russian secret services may have executed the troops suspected of shooting down Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, say sources involved in the investigation of the crash over eastern Ukraine. The Dutch-led probe is leaning towards a conclusion that a BUK missile fired from rebel-held territory downed the Boeing 777, killing all 298 on board. And it is highly likely the aircraft was shot out of the sky by Russian military personnel, according to a report by the Netherlands' state broadcaster NOS, citing anonymous sources in the police and the group of investigators working on the probe into the plane's loss.

Rep. Tim Bishop, D-N.Y., warned during a recent speech that up to 40 radicalized U.S. citizens who have fought alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL or ISIS) have already returned to the United States, where they could pose a terrorist threat. Bishop claims that of the 100 or so Americans who have traveled to the Middle East to join ISIL’s ranks, some 40 have returned and are currently being surveilled by the FBI, according to his remarks, which were filmed and uploaded to YouTube last week.

Military pressure may be needed to oust Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Saudi Arabia on Thursday. SNIP--- "Ultimately a combination of diplomacy and pressure will be needed to bring about a political transition. Military pressure particularly may be necessary given President Assad's reluctance to negotiate seriously."

"I'm afraid Putin will kill me," Boris Nemtsov told a Russian website on February 10. He was dead before the month was out. The charismatic opposition leader, a former deputy prime minister under Boris Yeltsin, was assassinated in the heart of Moscow on Friday night as he walked over a bridge near Red Square, only yards from the Kremlin walls. The killing, it seems clear, was a professional hit. Nemtsov was shot four times in the back by gunmen who escaped in a precisely timed getaway car, the murder unrecorded by nearby security cameras, which were mysteriously turned off — all...

President Barack Obama is holding a video conference with European leaders to discuss their push for peace in Ukraine and other global security issues. The White House says other leaders planning to be on the Tuesday morning call include British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and European Commission President Donald Tusk.

A US military satellite exploded after detecting an unexplained “sudden spike in temperature”, sending dozens of chunks of debris tumbling into different orbits around Earth. ===== Air Force Space Command confirmed to SpaceNews.com that the “catastrophic event” came after “a sudden spike in temperature” was detected, followed by “an unrecoverable loss of attitude control”. While operators were deciding how to “render the vehicle safe” they detected a debris cloud which indicated that the satellite had been destroyed.

Sen. John McCain is charging the Obama administration’s foreign policy is “delusional” and says Secretary of State John Kerry’s global diplomacy has “accomplished nothing except mileage.” In an appearance on MSNBC, the Arizona Republican also calls Russian President Vladimir Putin a “meglomaniac” and “pariah.”

Moscow, March 2, Interfax - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will open a high-level event on the subject of protecting Christians on the sidelines of the 28th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. "Russia is seriously concerned by conflicts in the Middle East which has been the center of monotheistic religions since time immemorial. Regrettably, during these conflicts Christians are not only being harassed and discriminated against, but they also become victims of actions which fall under the definition of the genocide," the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department of Information and Press said. Christians in Iraq and...

Supporters of slaughtered Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov march in Moscow yesterday, Sunday 01 March 2015 (twitter) There is no need to discuss whether Vladimir Putin personally gave the order to kill Boris Nemtsov, or whether it was given by someone else in the Kremlin - either to make the boss happy or, conversely, to put yet another stain on his long-besmirched reputation. Or whether Nemtsov was shot by some "patriotic" right-wing ghoul, acting on his own. As deputy head of the Kremlin administration Vyacheslav Volodin declared last October, speaking at the Valdai discussion forum in Sochi: "Russia will endure only...

While Vladimir Putin remains firmly entrenched in power in the Kremlin, opposition forces marched in the tens of thousands in the streets of Moscow according to journalists. The marchers chanted demanding an end to Putin’s power in Russia after the assassination of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. Nemtsov was gun down on the streets of Moscow.The suspicion is that Nemtsov, who was planning a rally in Moscow against Putin and the prosecution of the Ukraine war, was killed to silence and inconvenient critic.“Tens of thousands of Russians marched through central Moscow on Sunday, carrying banners declaring ‘I am not afraid’ and...

Vladimir Putin has ruled Russia with three things: money, propaganda and terror. When the Russian economy was booming and the oil price was over $100 a barrel, Putin ruled Russia almost entirely with money – throwing cash at the elites and at the people – with a small dose of propaganda and a tiny injection here and there of terror. Now the money is running out, the equation has shifted. Today, Russia is ruled mostly through propaganda and terror. Boris Nemtsov took not a step nor a breath that wasn't under the intense surveillance of the FSB. Just like all...

The Kremlin, it appears, had a plan from the start. Weeks before the bloodiest days in Kyiv, weeks before Viktor Yanukovych fell from power and fled to Russia, weeks before the Euromaidan revolution reached its climax, the Kremlin had a blueprint for war. And a blueprint for annexing not just Crimea but large swaths of eastern Ukraine, as well. Some of the plan was realized; some of it not. But what does it tell us about the Kremlin's thinking and where the conflict may go from here? On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, we discuss the Kremlin strategy document on...

Lithuania said Saturday it had signed a trade agreement to buy liquified natural gas from the United States in a move aimed at reducing the EU Baltic state’s heavy dependence on Russian gas deliveries. Under the deal with Houston-based Chenier Energy company, the first LNG fuel is expected to arrive in Lithuania as early as next year, state-owned company Litgas said in a statement.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced on February 24 that Britain would send military personnel to Ukraine soon to help train its army. RFE/RL's Rikard Jozwiak spoke to Judy Dempsey, senior associate at Carnegie Europe and editor-in-chief of the blog Strategic Europe about the significance of the move. RFE/RL: British Prime Minister David Cameron announced this week that his country will send 75 military personnel to Ukraine. Do you think this might be a game changer in the Ukraine conflict? Judy Dempsey: No. They are sending them for training, for civilian-military relations, for sorting how the military on some levels...

The body of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, covered with plastic, lies on Moskvoretsky Bridge near St. Basil Cathedral in central Moscow early on February 28. When reporters asked former world chess champion and Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov who was behind the assassination of opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, he dismissed the question as irrelevant. Whoever did the dirty work, he implied, would have done so only with President Vladimir Putin's blessing. "Who gave the order to kill Nemtsov? Who knows,” Kasparov said. ”But this was done not far from the Kremlin and it would have been done by Putin's...

On Friday evening, Boris Nemtsov, a Russian opposition leader and former first deputy prime minister under Boris Yeltsin, went on a prominent Moscow radio station to exhort his fellow citizens to come out to protest President Vladimir Putin’s policies. There would be a rally on Sunday, a spring march, to demonstrate against the deepening economic crisis and Russia’s involvement in Ukraine. The most prominent Russian opposition leader, Aleksei Navalny, had been put in jail for 15 days, which just happened to be long enough to keep him from attending the rally. Nemtsov, who was older and, by now, less influential,...

The murder of Boris Nemtsov in broad daylight just outside the Kremlin confirms the worst fears about Russia under President Vladimir Putin. For a man like him, wealth and power leave no room for scruples. He is probably the world’s richest man, and he is ruthlessly extending the territory of Russia. Nemtsov publicized the country’s endemic corruption, and accused Putin of aggression against Ukraine. A fortnight ago, he was predicting that Putin would have him murdered. That’s the logic of systems of this kind. Putin’s message to Nemtsov’s aged mother reads in full, “Please accept my deepest condolences in connection...

Action in memory of Boris Nemtsov in Moscow. LIVE In Moscow, March 1 goes rally in memory of Boris Nemtsov, who was killed last night in the Greater Moscow River bridge, Column Proceeds from the Slavic area. Completed a march at the murder scene Policy. http://tvrain.ru/articles/aktsija_pamjati_borisa_nemtsova_v_moskve_live-383168/

WASHINGTON—The U.S. is providing spy-satellite imagery to Ukraine to help in its fight against Russia-backed rebels, but with a catch: the images are significantly degraded to avoid provoking Russia or compromising U.S. secrets. The White House agreed last year to Ukraine’s request to provide the photos and other intelligence. But before delivering them, U.S. officials black out military staging areas on Russian territory and reduce the resolution so that enemy formations can’t be clearly made out, making them less useful to Ukrainian military commanders. Those steps, which delay the delivery of the images by at least 24 hours, are designed...

A top political nemesis of President Vladimir Putin was shot and killed early Saturday in central Moscow, Russian police said, one day before an opposition rally was scheduled to take place. Boris Nemtsov, 55, a former deputy prime minister, was shot four times from a passing car as he was walking on a bridge just outside the Kremlin. Interior Ministry spokeswoman Yelena Alexeyeva told reporters on the scene that Nemtsov was walking with a female acquaintance, a Ukrainian citizen, when a vehicle drove up and unidentified assailants shot him dead. The woman wasn't hurt.