In the interview with Sputnik, Grubski said that he was "very impressed" by Putin and had a "full respect" for the Russian president.

Having previously supported his Italian colleague in his pre-election campaign in March, Bannon travelled to Italy again in order to officially welcome the country’s interior minister into his up-and-coming pan-European political group.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini met Donald Trump’s former campaign strategist Steve Bannon in Rome on Friday and shortly afterwards Salvini formally joined the Bannon-founded anti-European establishment group called the Movement, as follows from a tweet posted by Mischaël Modrikamen, the Belgian politician and co-founder of the People’s Party, who is also a member of Bannon’s Eurosceptic movement.

After reports in recent months that the US was considering withdrawing its military from Germany. On Friday, however, the US announced that it will be sending an additional 1,500 troops to Germany in the next two years.

The new troops are headed to Grafenwuhr, and will include field artillery and a pair of multiple-launch rocket system battalions. Other units are being sent to Ansbach and Baumholder.

Army officials issued a statement saying the deployment proves “our continued commitment to NATO and our collective resolve to support European security.” Mostly it’s just an increase in US troops deployed to Europe.

State TV has shown images of police chasing protesters near barriers in Thessaloniki.

During the Greek prime minister's visit to the TIF, several rallies are being held in Thessaloniki: trade unions, groups of farmers and pensioners are set to organize protests against the government's economic policy, while later in the day a demonstration against the agreement between Athens and Skopje on the new name for Macedonia is also set to take place.

The European Union should launch dialogue with Russia and the US on the Syrian settlement, Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl said on Thursday. Talks between the top US and Russian diplomats and the EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s session in New York later this month could yield progress on the Syrian issue, the Austrian Foreign Ministry quoted Kneissl as saying after talks with Mogherini in Brussels.

During previous exercises of comparable size, Norwegian farmers sustained damage from NATO tanks that amounted to the tens of thousands of kronor.

The Norwegian Armed Forces have warned of collateral damage during the upcoming NATO drill Trident Juncture, one of the largest in the country's history, national broadcaster NRK reported. Everything from livestock to vehicles may be affected.

According to the military newspaper Forsvarets forum, damage is expected in the following areas: croplands, forests, roads, power and telecom installations, cars and pets (including chickens dying from high vibrations or larger animals becoming overly stressed by noise from the drills).

Hedmark farmer Erling Aas-Eng is also fearful that the damage may be extensive.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government said on Wednesday it is preparing for all Brexit scenarios, including “no deal,” Reuters reports. The cabinet also approved a draft law on a transition phase for Britain after it leaves the European Union next year. The draft law on a transition phase, the result of an EU agreement from March, will only come into force if an exit deal is reached, according to a German government spokeswoman.

Prime Minister May was a remainer, and has remained a remainer. She has ensured that Whitehall leads the negotiation with Brussels. Since Whitehall is part of the Brussels establishment, it is the establishment negotiating with itself about how best to dilute or even negate the referendum result of June 23, 2016.

The same people who negotiated between the time of Prime Minister Cameron’s Bloomberg speech in January 2013 and Cameron’s announcement of his proposed deal with the EU in February 2016 have also negotiated the Chequers deal. Cameron’s February 2016 speech was greeted by a Sun headline: “Who do EU think you are kidding?”. The response to Chequers is similar.

Earlier, Washington announced new sanctions against Russia concerning allegations over its alleged role in the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, a claim strongly rejected by Moscow as groundless.

The permanent representatives of 28 EU countries approved on Wednesday a decision to extend for six months individual sanctions against Russia.

"The deputies at the committee meeting approved the extension of sanctions for the next six months," the source said.

The European Union is in the final stages of crafting legislation that will force big tech and internet companies to censor “extremist” content and cooperate with law enforcement, Reuters reports.

The bill is expected to be released by the end of the month and will absolutely require companies such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter to swiftly remove any content considered terroristic from their platforms.

In March, the European Commission told such companies that they had three months to show they were removing “extremist” content more rapidly or face legislation forcing them to do so.

EU recommendations were sent out at the time regarding the speedy removal of all content including terrorist content, incitement to hatred and violence, child sexual abuse material, counterfeit products, and copyright infringement.

NIGEL Farage has condemned the EU's continuous attempts to create a European [army] as British soldiers arrived in Bosnia on Tuesday wearing EU flags on their sleeves for European training exercise.

Over the past few months NATO member states have sharply increased their pressure on Russia. The Euro-Atlantic establishment is strengthening the image of Russia as a fierce enemy. It is very useful to have such a foe to justify your own reckless foreign and domestic policy.

The situation has already led to a recognizable deterioration of the relations between the two sides undermining problem-solving mechanisms, like the UN Security Council or the OPCW.

The most alarming result of these actions is a growing military escalation between NATO and Russia in the Black Sea region and in Eastern Europe overall. NATO member states have increased their airspace activity and the number of ground military exercises near Russia’s border.

A surge in populism has sent Sweden’s far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) Party surging in the polls leading up to the country’s September 9 election – placing them neck and neck with the Moderate party. The current ruling party, the Swedish Social Democrats (S), however, remain strongly in the lead.

Perhaps dozens of cars torched by “misguided youths”, rapes, swiming pool sex assaults, news crew attacks, grenade attacks and government funded sex courses to teach migrants that 14 is just too young, aren’t sitting well with Swedes who may regret following their “feminist” government in welcoming over 400,000 people from countries and cultures not exactly known for their embrace of feminism.

Naples’ mayor, Luigi de Magistris, has posted an impassioned pledge to launch an autonomous municipal cryptocurrency that, he says, would unshackle the city from “anti-southern discrimination” and “unfair” debt, on his Facebook public profile September 2.

The Marine Corps Times on Tuesday reported the details of the run-up to what's being described as NATO's largest ever military games in a decade, called Trident Juncture, set to take place right up along Russia's border with Europe.

Currently, the US Marine Corps is engaged in preparatory maneuvers with Swedish counterparts in a training exercise that involves mock raids and amphibious operations up and down Sweden's coastal island archipelagos.

Some 75 US Marines are said to be involved in the training which involves navigating an area of thousands of small islands known as the Stockholm Archipelago and which extend nearly 40 miles to the east into the Baltic Sea.

An Islamist organization which received municipal funds has previously been accused of denying the Nazi Holocaust, banned from renting premises in the Swedish city of Gothenburg and linked to extremism by the German security service BfV.

Milli Görüs, an anti-Western pan-Turkish organization repeatedly labeled extremist and anti-Semitic, has received support from Malmö City Council, the Swedish tabloid newspaper Expressen reported.

The European Commission was today savaged for breaking rules in allowing the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker's aide to a senior Brussels post.

An EU watchdog said the body risked its reputation by rushing the promotion of Martin Selmayr - dubbed the 'Monster' - as European Commission secretary general.

Mr Selmayr was Mr Juncker's chief of staff before he was suddenly elevated to the very senior Brussels post in February this year.

The appointment sparked a flurry of criticism at the time, and today the EU ombudsman savaged members of the Mr Juncker's team for the promotion.

Tory MP Michael Fabricant told MailOnline Mr Juncker should resign over the scandal.

Convicted fraudster and Ghanaian national Kweku Adoboli, 38, who was responsible for the biggest trading loss in UK banking history, has accused the Home Office of “racism” for deporting him for his crime.

The majority of people who travelled to Europe in 2015 at the height of the continent’s Migrant Crisis had made the journey seeking better material living standards and did not fit the criteria to be refugees, Finland’s Prime Minister has said.

Speaking during an interview with Finnish public broadcaster YLE at the weekend, Juha Sipilä asserted that the mass influx of immigrants seen in 2015 and 2016 following Angela Merkel’s suspension of EU Dublin rules has “caused the recent unrest in Europe”, highlighting protests in Germany’s Chemnitz over murders by migrants.

“What made the situation so difficult is that the majority of these people are on the move because of economic reasons – not because they are fleeing war or personal persecution,” he argued, prompting outrage from Finland’s left.

A man of North African origin has allegedly stabbed two German tourists on the Spanish island of Majorca before being gunned down and restrained by police.

Witnesses told local media the man shouted in Arabic during the attack and threatened to replicate recent Islamist terror atrocities.

When he refused to cooperate, police shot the knife-wielding man in the ankle and arrested him before he allegedly shouted “You are racists!” to officers after the incident on Monday.

The European Commission on Wednesday urged France and Britain to find an "amicable" solution after fishermen from the two countries clashed in the English Channel over a hoard of scallops.

Brussels insisted however that it could not get involved in the fight as arrangements for trawling for the prized shellfish were made between individual countries, not at a European level.

Angela Merkel has warned her country’s business leaders that the Brexit negotiations are in danger of collapse.

With talks in Brussels at an impasse with just months to go before a deal needs to be agreed, the German chancellor made a rare intervention at a conference in Frankfurt.

She told major players in the world of German finance on Tuesday: “We don’t want the discussions to break down. We will use all our force and creativity to make sure a deal happens. We don’t want these negotiations to collapse. But we also can’t fully rule that out because we still have no result.”

Grønland, a district in the city of Oslo that is said to have “apocalyptic level of culturally-enriched violence.” It is only two subway stops from the Parliament, one stop from the Central Station, and fairly close to the government offices that were bombed by Breivik.

The Czech Republic should remain the Czech Republic, and Europe Europe, but this is threatened by illegal migration from Muslim countries, undermining the Christian foundations of European civilization. This was announced by Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Andrej Babiš speaking on the air of the Prague TV channel "Prima".

According to the Czech prime minister, stabilization of the political and economic situation in Libya, assistance to its authorities in stopping the smuggling of "refugees" into Europe, strengthening the external borders of the European Union are a key task in the fight against illegal migration. Babiš pointed out that the Libyan border guard is "very effective," and it will cope with its tasks even better when one government appears in Libya, to which the EU should contribute. The next stage is the conclusion with Tripoli of an agreement on combating illegal migration, such as what the EU has with Turkey.

French President Emmanuel Macron has blasted populist Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson claiming he is “not compatible with Swedish values” during an interview one week before the country’s national election.

The comments from the French president came after the Sweden Democrats leader was asked in a debate whether he would choose to side with either Macron or Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Slammed by both sides of her party, Theresa May’s super-soft Brexit plan has suffered a fresh blow as a pro-EU former Cabinet minister warned the Prime Minister’s blueprint was “less popular than the poll tax”.

Remain supporter and former Education Secretary Justine Greening said the plan unveiled at Chequers was “now dead”, and argued there was “no point having a government spending two vital months working on that” when it should be drafting a new pathway to Brexit.

“The Chequers deal is now more unpopular with the British people than the poll tax was, and that is why it’s untenable to take forward,” she told BBC Radio 4’s World at One on Monday, urging the Prime Minister to “accept it has not worked and look for alternative routes through”.

A fire was started at the minors’ refugee camp of Pylaia,Thessaloniki last month, in a protest against “poor living conditions” and low quality of food provided.

The protest was organised in the early hours of the morning. During this protest the “minors” started self harming with razors and setting mattresses alight. The Greek fire brigades fought the fire immediately to prevent spreading to other areas of the camp.

Europe must fight for its culture and values amidst the migration crisis, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has declared. He says recent riots in Germany show how the uncontrolled influx of migrants leads to explosive situations.

“Chemnitz is just right around the corner!” Babis said on Sunday, recalling the chaos that engulfed the eastern German city last week during pro and anti-migrant rallies held there. “I’ve been thoroughly explaining that this is a fight to preserve our European civilization and culture. We don’t want to live in Africa or the Middle East here. We must fight for our values.”

“Have you seen the pictures of migrant ships heading for tourist beaches? Europeans are shocked and frightened. The same thing happened in Chemnitz. There was not only a murder committed, but also the murders of teenage girls and sexual assaults,” Babis went on.

Jacob Rees-Mogg has claimed that he and the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, bonded in a meeting in Brussels over their shared assessment that Theresa May’s Chequers plan is “complete rubbish”.

The Tory MP, who was visiting the European commission with the cross-party Brexit select committee, said he had been encouraged by the lack of enthusiasm he had found for the prime minister’s plans.

Emerging from the commission’s headquarters, Rees-Mogg told reporters that both Brussels and Eurosceptic MPs agreed that a free trade deal on the same lines as that signed between the EU and Canada was the most promising way forward.

While seeking a return to imperial hegemony, the UK is neither dominating the world nor taking care of its own people, Adam Garrie, a geopolitical analyst and director at Eurasia Future, told Sputnik. The bold Brexit rhetoric and the idea to turn the Commonwealth of Nations into a new trading bloc might ultimately face stark reality, he believes.

"A very rude awakening is in store because unless the UK settles on the Norwegian or Swiss style model — which I suspect they ultimately will, the EU will show the UK the door and slam it shut," Adam Garrie, a geopolitical analyst and director at Eurasia Future, told Sputnik, commenting on the UK's post-Brexit prospects.

A European Union board member gave a speech criticizing the weak presence of European fintech businesses in the continent’s own market. The leader’s comments come in response to several major clashes with American multinationals over their unscrupulous practices.

The European Union's high-ranking foreign diplomat has decided not to serve another term in the European Commission, a speech on Monday stated. The news was announced during an annual conference on foreign policy and comes as a surprise to the international community.

European Union high representative for foreign affairs and security policy Federica Mogherini stated that she will not seek reappointment after her term ends next year, AFP reported on Monday.

Plans to extend the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) will be on the discussion agenda during the meeting of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, according to reports.

The two officials are scheduled to discuss plans to extend a gas pipeline that will run from Azerbaijan to Puglia in Southern Italy.

A no-deal Brexit could result in some difficulties for several economy sectors, including food, air transport, pharmaceutical drugs, think tank The UK in a Changing Europe said in a report published on Monday.

"Predicting the short-run effects of a chaotic no deal Brexit is much more difficult. The biggest costs would come not from moving to new regulatory arrangements for trade, but from a partial or complete breakdown of the regulatory arrangements that make trade possible at all. Aircraft could be grounded; British meat may not be certified as safe to enter the EU market; just-in-time production systems used by manufacturers and food producers could break down; border crossings on both sides of the channel could be gridlocked," the report stated.

Michel Barnier has said he is “strongly opposed” to the prime minister’s Chequers proposals on future trade, as he advised European car manufacturers that they will have to use fewer British-made parts after Brexit.

In his most damning condemnation yet of the UK government’s plans, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator said the British offer on customs was illegal and its suggestion of a “common rulebook” on goods would kill the European project.

Instead, in an intervention that will concern the 186,000 people directly employed by the car industry in the UK, Barnier warned European manufacturers that the streamlined system of imports and exports between the UK and the rest of Europe would come to an end.

With global tensions reaching a fever pitch, many Europeans, including at the very top, have started to realize a need for good-neighborly and trusting relations with Russia.

While on a visit to Finland, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested revising the relationship between the EU and Russia, raising the issue for the second time in recent days. Sputnik France has discussed this with Didier Tauzin, a French general and a former presidential candidate.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that discussions with Russia were necessary and that he respected Russian President Vladimir Putin, alleging, however, that Putin dreams about "dismantling the European Union."

"I respect Vladimir Putin and I am one of those who believe that we need to create new approaches to security with Russia, we need discussions with Russia, but Putin's dream is to dismantle the EU," the French president said during an interview with Sweden's SVT broadcaster about European values and the difference between France and Russia.

Donald Trump is on a mission. His goal? Destroy the post-WWII institutional order that has outlived its usefulness.

And there have been a number of major moves that fundamentally tear at the fabric of that order. In a span of a day we’ve had the following things occur in quick succession.

French President Emmanuel Macron holds a press conference calling for a new “strategic relationship with Russia and Turkey.”

At the same time he softened the EU’s stance on Russia’s reunification with Crimea, saying Russian – EU relations needed “to be brought up to date.”

On the trade and tariff war with Trump, Germany called Trump’s bluff about free trade on cars by offering to scrap all import tariffs on theirs in exchange for the U.S. lifting them on light trucks and pickups, which Trump promptly rejected.

Trump then called the EU “Worse than China” and threatened to pull the U.S. out of the World Trade Organization.

Get ready for a major geopolitical chessboard rumble: from now on, every butterfly fluttering its wings and setting off a tornado directly connects to the battle between Eurasia integration and Western sanctions as foreign policy.

It is the paradigm shift of China’s New Silk Roads versus America’s Our Way or the Highway. We used to be under the illusion that history had ended. How did it come to this?

A parting of ways? European leaders talk of a future without the US. What is in store for the transatlantic alliance?

Up to 22 cars were burned or damaged in several fires across southern Sweden on Thursday. It will likely stoke claims that the current socialist government has abjectly failed at tackling the surge in crime.

Police in the southern city of Trollhättan are investigating a fire that left up to ten vehicles damaged, according to local news outlet Aftonbladet. Police and rescue teams were called to the area of the Kronegården at around 3:30 am to tackle a “fully-fledged” fire which had engulfed three cars before spreading to more.

French President Emmanuel Macron is hypocritical to claim he supports migration while being unwilling to open the door to more migrants, says professor Jean Bricmont, adding that the issue could be used, by the right, against him.

Macron billed himself as a main opponent to the hardline anti-migrant politicians currently holding power in Italy and Hungary. That is after Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban united to fight existing EU migration policies and vowed to take power into their own hands in the next elections for the European Parliament.

During a joint press conference in Milan, Salvini and Orban pledged to take a hardline stance on the immigration issues and to oppose Macron, whom Hungary’s PM described as “the leader of pro-migration parties in Europe.”

Remainer Conservatives like Anna Soubry are worried that the party is being infiltrated by right-wing entryists from UKIP and elsewhere and that this may lead to Boris Johnson becoming Prime Minister and Britain securing full Brexit.
Yes.

That is the point, you pillocks.

That is exactly what the majority of people want.

French politicians have reacted with anger after Emmanuel Macron asserted that “true” Frenchmen and Danes “do not exist”, and attacked the people he rules over as stubbornly resistant to change while on an official visit to Denmark.

The French president made the remarks while on a three-day tour of Denmark and Finland, where he is hoping to establish a “progressive arc” of nations supporting his vision of a globalised EU superstate, which would revolve around a liberal conception of human rights, ahead of European Parliament elections next year.

Using a Goebbels-style mechanism to whitewash the truth, repeating lies and inventing non-existent threats to perpetuate itself, NATO uses the media to brainwash a gullible western public, employing a manipulation of fear to implement its trans-national policies, parading Russia as the eternal ogre.

When Fox News host Tucker Carlson asked Donald Trump last month why he should send his son to die defending Montenegro, NATO’s newest member, the president seemed to repudiate his own administration’s policy. He indicated that Americans shouldn’t be willing to sacrifice their lives for such a trivial ally. Furthermore, he warned that Montenegro “has very aggressive people. They may get aggressive, and congratulations, you’re in World War III.” As Cato Institute senior fellow Doug Bandow pointed out, Trump’s comment was odd on two counts.

First, the Senate approved the admission of Montenegro on his watch in March 2017. If he thought that latest episode of adding a useless microstate to the Alliance was unwise, he could have withdrawn the treaty from consideration before the Senate vote.

An African migrant is in custody, suspected of throwing a German girl off a cliff in Italy after possibly attempting to rape her, authorities say.

Greek media has reported that Washington has stepped up its military activities in the Aegean Sea, which they claimed is turning into a US training ground.

NATO has handed Athens a list of 50 "suspicious vessels" it accuses of conducting reconnaissance missions in the Aegean Sea near the coast of Greece, according to the Greek newspaper Real.

"The vessels include fishing, sailing and leisure ships which are sailing across the Aegean Sea in order to gather information. Apart from Greek military facilities and activities, they are also interested in the movement of Americans, which is currently gathering pace in Greek territory," the Real reported.

In the aftermath of a report that Germany was working on a global payment system that is independent of the US and SWIFT, on Monday Germany and France said they’re working on financing solutions to sidestep U.S. sanctions against countries such as Iran, including a possible role for central banks, Bloomberg reported.

"With Germany, we are determined to work on an independent European or Franco-German financing tool which would allow us to avoid being the collateral victims of U.S. extra-territorial sanctions," French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Monday during a meeting with press association AJEF. “I want Europe to be a sovereign continent not a vassal, and that means having totally independent financing instruments that do not today exist.”

The discussions, which also involve the U.K., are a signal that European powers are trying to get serious about demonstrating a greater level of independence from the U.S. as President Donald Trump pursues his “America First” agenda.

A recent conversation with the director of the language center of a public German university has given me a new perspective, and sparks yet another question related to the so-called “refugee crisis” in Germany. The academic explained to me that there was a shortage of staff available to fill teachers’ roles. This hampers the university’s ability to continue with the language courses. How can this be? Well, it turns out that there is currently a labor exodus of teachers who are certified to teach language to foreign students, the teachers being a facet of the university’s “integration courses.” That is, integration for refugees.

Earlier, Wolfgang Buchele, head of the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (OAOEV), warned that the prospects for German-Russian trade are still marred by new US anti-Russian sanctions, which are "dangerous because they can target European partners of Russian companies."

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has urged Europe to react to the US sanctions-related policy on Russia, China, Turkey and other important economic partners.

"Washington prompts us to formulate European responses to its sanctions-related policy, something which pertains to Europe and Germany. We should react to the United States suddenly imposing uncoordinated and rather nonspecific sanctions against Russia, China, Turkey and in the future, perhaps, against other important trading partners," he underlined.

Theresa May and the government would face a race against time to pass a slew of new laws, or risk creating an “unsustainable legal vacuum”, if Britain plunged out of the EU without a deal, Labour’s Keir Starmer has warned.

Dominic Raab insisted last week that the government had the legislation in place to cope, if Britain is forced to leave in March 2019 without a withdrawal agreement.

“Our laws will be on the statute book, the staff will be in place, the teams will be in post and our institutions will be ready for Brexit – deal, or no deal,” the Brexit secretary said.

A no-deal Brexit will amount to an “existential threat” to the United Kingdom, says the first president of European Council, citing Scotland.

The idea of leaving the EU without a deal is an “operation fear” tactic by the British government, Herman Van Rompuy told the Observer Saturday.

The former Belgian prime minister suggested that Crashing out of the bloc without any deal would have consequences with impacts going beyond Brussels or London.