The Kremlin on Sunday welcomed US President Donald Trump’s new national security strategy and said it largely accorded with Russia’s own perceptions, the first time that Moscow has so fulsomely praised such a document from its former Cold War foe. Asked about the pledge in the U.S. document to end “the perception, and preventing the…
Kremlin on Tuesday said that “no compromise” was reached on the key questions of territory in Ukraine after hours of talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner(Reuters)…
President Xi Jinping reaffirmed Beijing’s commitment to Moscow, saying it was a “strategic choice” to strengthen ties, during a meeting with visiting Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Tuesday. Xi told Mishustin that China-Russia ties were advancing with steady determination “despite the turbulent and challenging external environment”, according to state news agency Xinhua. “Safeguarding, consolidating…
The European Union (EU) has approved its 19th sanctions package against Russia, including on its lucrative gas sector for the first time and its “shadow fleet”, to heap pressure on Moscow to end its war on Ukraine. The approval comes a day after the Trump administration imposed fresh sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies,…
Nikolay Azarov, Ukraine’s former prime minister who fled to Russia in 2014, issued a warning directed at President Donald Trump in an interview published by Russian state-run Tass news agency on Thursday. “Dear Mr. Trump, you’re making a fatal mistake right now. And it’s not at all about the damage that the Tomahawks will inflict…
A Russian lawmaker has described President Donald Trump as “obviously dumb” in a segment on Russian state TV during which he called for Moscow to interfere more directly in the U.S. political process. Andrei Lugovoi told the program 60 Minutes that Trump’s speech to his military’s top brass last week was “nonsense” and that current divisions…
On numerous occasions, he has threatened sanctions against Russia, but these threats have turned out to be hollow. Deadlines have come and gone without consequence, and Putin has been skillful at throwing Trump a bone just juicy enough to avoid punishment — though without any real meat. Now, Trump is conditioning new sanctions and tariffs…
“Scrambling fighter jets is NATO’s job,” said a senior EU official. The EU’s “job is to be ready to be in the position we need to be when we have to respond — to enhance our readiness and have the tools to be able to react to threats when needed, reinforcing common tools and capabilities…
Also, removing up to 5 million barrels of Russian oil and another 2 million barrels of petroleum products from the market — without creating an oil shock — is a complicated task with a questionable chance of success. That is why Western leaders have shied away from it, and in any case, there are still…
A recent discussion paper floated by the Danish presidency of the Council of the EU, seen by POLITICO, explored whether capitals would be open to imposing tariffs on Moscow as part of the bloc’s 19th sanctions package. That idea, according to several diplomats briefed on the talks, won little traction among ministers when it was…