State Duma deputies want to levy an additional tax on people with high personal incomes in order to finance the development of the new federation areas of Sevastopol and Crimea. The motion has been prepared by a group of MPs led by the Andrey Krutov of the center-left Fair Russia party. At the moment the group is completing consultations with legal experts and the bill will be submitted to the Lower... 

European Union (EU) foreign ministers have agreed on imposing tougher sanctions against Russian entities and individuals nearly one week after the downing of a Malaysian Airlines plane in Ukraine. On Wednesday, the ministers agreed to draft a new list of Russian entities and individuals by July 24 to be added to the 63 names already targeted by sanctions. The 28-member bloc says that the new sanctions... 

Why hasn’t Washington joined Russian President Putin in calling for an objective, non-politicized international investigation by experts of the case of the Malaysian jetliner? The Russian government continues to release facts, including satellite photos showing the presence of Ukrainian Buk anti-aircraft missiles in locations from which the airliner could have been brought down by the missile... 

An American political commentator believes that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu benefits from the shooting down of a Malaysian passenger plane because he can continue his atrocities in Gaza. In an interview with Press TV on Sunday, Veterans Today editor James Henry Fetzer also rejected Washington’s allegation that Moscow was behind the incident. “The report that the Russian weapons... 

Unnamed US officials are telling Associated Press that their intelligence suggests Malaysia plane shot down by anti-Kiev militia, no link to Russia found. Officials believe that the passenger aircraft was intercepted by an SA-11 surface-to-air missile, which was fired by Ukrainian militia members. One official said the likeliest explanation was the aircraft was shot down in error, an assertion that... 

The Russian military detected a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jetgaining height towards the MH17 Boeing on the day of the catastrophe. Kiev must explain why the military jet was tracking the passenger airplane, the Russian Defense Ministry said. “A Ukraine Air Force military jet was detected gaining height, it’s distance from the Malaysian Boeing was 3 to 5km,” said the head of the Main Operations... 

The UK will tighten sanctions against Russia if Moscow does not help in investigating a Malaysian airliner crash in Ukraine, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said. On July 17, Malaysian Airline flight MH17, which was travelling to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, crashed, killing all 298 people on board. There is speculation that the Boeing 777 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile while flying... 

Russian cities that want to develop their public transit systems will soon have a stellar option to buy. A sleek new black streetcar looks like something Darth Vader would pilot in Star Wars and promises new levels of comfort and safety to commuters. The R1, or Russia One, was developed by a subsidiary of Uralvagonzavod, a company best known for producing advanced Russian tanks. The prototype streetcar,... 

Hawkish US Senator John McCain has pointed the finger at Russian President Vladimir Putin after a passenger plane was shot down over eastern Ukraine. McCain said on Thursday if pro-Russian forces are linked to the crash, it would point directly to Putin. “The separatists could have only gotten that capability from Russia and so therefore the culpable party here is Vladimir Putin,” he claimed. After... 

A new report by the Emergency Situations Ministry (EMERCOM) circulating in the Kremlin today states that President Putin has ordered 5,000 additional military personal to “immediately embark” to both the Far Eastern Military District and Cuba after receiving confirmation earlier today that Alaska had been hit with a rare 6.0 magnitude supersonic earthquake. To be noted, this report says, are that... 

Moscow and Havana have reportedly reached an agreement on reopening the SIGINT facility in Lourdes, Cuba, once Russia’s largest foreign base of this kind which was shut down in 2001 due to financial problems and under US pressure. When operational, the facility was manned by thousands of military and intelligence personnel, whose task was to intercept signals coming from and to the US territory... 

Russia has declared a “day of mourning” as death toll from an underground train derailment in Moscow rises to 21. “Wednesday will be a day of mourning in Moscow, given the scope of the tragedy,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Tuesday. According to the Russian Emergencies Ministry, the accident occurred as a train going from the city center halted abruptly between the Park Pobedy... 

Below is President Putin’s complete address to the Russian diplomatic corps. It reveals Putin to be a person well aware of the threats that US unilateralism poses to the entire world. Washington’s belief that the US is exceptional and indispensable results in dictatorial behavior toward other countries and the overriding of their legitimate national interests. From such arrogance, wars... 

As a never-ending stream of spy scandals put Washington-Berlin relations under unprecedented strain, Germans are increasingly asking themselves whether the country should be blindly following the US. A recent poll for Der Spiegel showed that up to 57 percent of Germans would like Berlin to conduct policies more independent from the US, and an Op-Ed article by the publication asked more bluntly: “Germany’s... 

An artillery shell from Ukraine has hit a private house in the Rostov region of Russia, killing a citizen and leaving two more injured. The Russian Foreign Ministry promises heavy consequences. Reportedly up to six mortar shells exploded on Sunday in the small Russian town of Donetsk, which has the same name as the Ukrainian city and is situated right on the Ukrainian border. Ukraine’s charge d’affaires...