Russian President Vladimir Putin Russian President Vladimir Putin says that the banking crisis in Cyprus has revealed the unreliability of Western financial institutions. In an interview on Friday with Germany’s state-owned ARD television before an April 7 visit to the European nation, Putin accused Cypriot and European Union leaders of undermining confidence in Europe’s banks by taxing deposits... 

A stunning report prepared for President Putin by Deputy Foreign Minister Gennadiy Gatilov circulating in the Kremlin today states that “for all practical purposes” the United States has become a “plutocracy” and should no longer be registered, or referred to, by the Russian government as an “open and free democracy.” Even worse, Minister Gatilov further recommends in his report that the... 

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the Kremlin, in Moscow, after he told top officials in the Kremlin that he intends to sign into law a bill banning Americans from adopting Russian children, December 27, 2012. Russian President Vladimir Putin says he intends to sign into law a bill that bans Americans from adopting Russian children. “I do not yet see any reason why I should not sign it,”... 

US adoptive father Miles Harrison left the baby Dima Yakovlev strapped in a car seat in front of his office under the scorching sun with the temperature inside reaching 170 degrees Fahrenheit. The body was discovered by Harrison’s colleague nine hours later. Russia’s parliament has overwhelmingly approved a bill that bans Americans from adopting Russian children. On Wednesday, the assembly... 

Two years ago, Greece missed the chance to extricate from the crisis with Russia’s help. Nowadays, Russian investments in the country grow and give air to breathe to economies of several regions of Greece, such as the north-east. Russian investors are especially attracted by cheap real estate, tourism and the property that they can buy from the state. “Greece should only give Russia the... 

People’s religious feelings must be respected, but Russia is a secular state, President Vladimir Putin stated in a comment on a recent controversy over a Russian school banning Muslim girls from attending classes while wearing a hijab. “We should see how our neighbors, European states deal with this issue [wearing hijabs]. And everything will become clear,” Putin said on Thursday, at a meeting... 

A State Duma deputy, the head of the Committee on Economic Policy and Entrepreneurship of the Russian State Duma, Yevgeny Fyodorov, told Pravda.Ru of his impressions from visiting the APEC summit in Vladivostok. According to him, the meeting showed that the U.S. gradually loses absolute power in the world economy and politics. The power and influence of other countries, such as Russia and China, grows... 

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced it will close its offices in Russia. After 20 years of working in Russia, USAID officials said they were informed by the Russian government that their services were no longer required. According to the Foreign Ministry, USAID was attempting to manipulate the election processes in the country. “The character of the agency’s... 

Russia must agree to European Union requirements for an open natural gas market, the EU Energy Commissioner said, specifying that this implies that the price for imported Russian gas should be identical across the European Union. “Our Russian partner understands our rules but doesn’t accept them,” Guenther Oettinger said at an energy conference in Lithuania. “It can’t... 

President Vladimir Putin congratulated the Russian Hajj Mission on its 10th anniversary, and said that Islam has become integral to Russia’s religious, cultural and social fabric. “Traditions of Islam are based on eternal values of kindness, mercifulness and justice. Millions of people in our country practice this ancient religion,” Putin wrote in a telegram published on the Kremlin’s website. The... 

S-300V and S-300VM anti-aircraft long distance missile systems President Putin has said Russia is not planning to enter a new arms race, but urged senior officials to develop the nuclear arsenal further, along with Russia’s own air and space defenses, so that no one in the world doubts their effectiveness. Putin was speaking at a special meeting on the state weapon program that took place in the... 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a controversial status bill that brands externally-funded NGOs as “foreign agents”. The document is to come into force in 120 days following its publication. ­The bill, previously approved by both chambers of the Russian parliament, will now force non-profit organizations receiving funding from abroad and engaging in political activity to register... 

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 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... 

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...