Russia and Cuba are strengthening ties again, after a break which followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union supplied Cuba with oil – up to 13 mn tons each year – and quantities of arms. In return, it received Cuban tobacco, coffee, fruit and sugar and enjoyed the right to build and operate military facilities on Cuban territory. After the Soviet collapse, however, these exchanges... 

A Russian Buk-M2 air defense system Russia says it has no plans to impose an arms embargo on Syria and intends to fulfill a contract for delivering air defense systems to the country. A senior Russian arms export official said on Wednesday that since the contract to deliver Syria the air defense systems were signed before the outbreak of unrest in the country, Moscow is obliged to fulfill its commitments. ”Russia... 

A startling report prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture that is circulating in the Kremlin today states that the Obama regime has begun making “strident overtures” for Russia to expand it grain exports this year as the United States faces its worst agricultural disaster in over a quarter century, and perhaps its greatest since the Dust Bowl era of the Great Depression. Fears of another Russian... 

Tajikistan’s latest move to toughen its position in renewing the lease of the 201st Russian army base is connected with the activities, which the United States and China have been conducting in the former Soviet republic recently. As a result, Moscow may lose its influence in this country, Alexander Karavayev, deputy director of the Center for the Study of the former Soviet Union, Moscow State... 

A grim report prepared by the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) for President Putin on the catastrophic flooding in the ‎Krasnodar region that has killed at least 144 people warns that our world is fast approaching what is termed as a “Chizhevsky Super Event” due to the rapidly growing number of sunspots that continue to hurl M and X Class Flares towards Earth causing continued and massive global... 

Massive flooding in the Krasnodar region in Russia’s south has left 78 dead and over 1,000 displaced from their homes as the death toll continues to rise. Governor Aleksandr Tkachyov claims there hasn’t been anything like it for the past 70 years. Entire city streets have been completely submerged after torrential rain storms Friday, with the Krymsky district taking the worst of the floods, according... 

The world’s largest sailing ship, the Sedov, that started its world cruise in May, may not reach all of its destination ports. The Sedov has recently declined entering the Swedish ports of Göteborg and Malmo because the local authorities could arrest the ship. US officials said that they would arrest the ship if it called at the port of San Francisco. The ship was supposed to call at San Francisco... 

Admiral Panteleyev destroyer A group of Russia’s Pacific Fleet warships has arrived at the U.S. Pearl Harbor naval base to take part in the Rim of the Pacific international drills, a fleet spokesman said on Saturday. “During their long voyage from Vladivostok to Pearl Harbor, the warships’ crews held several firing drills, successfully destroying all the targets,” First-Rank Captain Roman Martov... 

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan (C) speaks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) next to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (L) at the opening of a meeting on June 30, 2012, at the United Nations office in Geneva. The Syrian crisis is to be resolved by a transition government consisting of the current authorities and opposition leaders. The proposal was announced by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi... 

Russia offered Zimbabwe to conclude an intergovernmental agreement about the mutual protection of investments. Russian companies may thus obtain an opportunity to develop one of the world’s largest deposits of platinum. In return, Zimbabwe, which remains under the influence of sanctions from the USA and EU, will receive military hardware from Russia. Moreover, Russia intends to ship a large... 

Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia has officially announced that it was closing all of its flagship stores in Russia. The most effective sales channels for the company now are the Internet and a network of major retailers and service providers. According to Nokia’s representative in Russia, Lyudmila Semushina, the last single-brand shop will close in late July. The Finns will be developing... 

It is now widely known that the Obama administration, with the help of its allies, is planning to launch an offensive against the Assad regime in Syria. The attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, with the help Israel, also seems to be on the cards. In such a situation, where Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya have proven to be clear fiascos, the dwindling world economic scene can least afford another major... 

Saying that Finland will surrender its right to act independently in the event it joins the western military alliance, Putin added that Moscow will respond to deployment of any NATO attack missiles based in the Nordic country. “The involvement of any country in a military bloc deprives it of a certain degree of sovereignty, and some decisions are made at a different level,” the Russian... 

Britain came alarmingly close to a dangerous clash with Moscow when David Cameron was asked to consider giving an order to forcibly board a ship headed towards the English Channel carrying three Russian-made helicopters for delivery to the regime in Syria, it emerged today. Any seizure would have been carried out by members of the Special Boat Service, SBS, the only military unit authorised to performing... 

The Justice Ministry has registered a political party with the declared objective of creating a unified state of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus called the Russian Union. The party is called the Russian People’s Union and is the first nationalist party registered under the new, much simpler rules adopted earlier this year. It should be noted that the word “Russian” in the party’s title is used...