Russia has vowed that they “will act” should Ukraine or Georgia join NATO. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu voiced his concern over what he described as the “militarization of the European continent,” by promising action instead of empty rhetoric.

This statement by Shoigu appears to be a sign of the country’s unease in the wake of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out the United States out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). Speaking during a meeting with Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, Shoigu said: “We are following with alarm NATO’s policy aimed at the active militarization of the European continent. We see efforts being made to involve more and more NATO member countries, I mean the Balkans first of all.”

A senior Russian official proposed that his country is seriously considering establishing a military base in Cuba in response to Trump’s plan to quit the INF treaty, predicting that "a new Cuban crisis" could erupt if the US and Russia fail to come to terms.

According to General Vladimir Shamanov, the head of the Russian lower house of parliament's defense committee and a former airborne troops commander, with the US planning on walking away from the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force (INF) treaty, Russia's response should be in the "spirit of those times", by reactivating Russian military facilities in Cuba.

The U.S. and Russia have accused one another of violating the agreement, but President Donald Trump has announced his intention to now end it, paving the way for new nuclear and conventional weapons systems at a time of heightened tensions, Newsweek reported.

The Admiral Kuznetsov has seen action in Russia’s military campaign in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad with its planes carrying out air strikes against rebel forces.

It was being overhauled on one of the world’s biggest floating docks in the icy waters of the Kola Bay near Murmansk close to where Russia’s Northern Fleet is based and was due to go back into service in 2021.

Maria Kovtun, Murmansk’s governor, said in a statement that a rescue operation had been launched and 71 people evacuated after the floating dock holding the ship had begun to sink.

The warship had been successfully extracted from the dock before it completely sank, she said.

Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Vladimir Omelyan has called for sanctions against Russian ports on the Black Sea, Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform said.

“The latest statements by the US State Department, the European Parliament and the European Commission are not casual, they are the result of the work of the Ukrainian authorities, of having brought true information to our partners in the anti-Russian coalition and we suggest the introduction of sanctions against Russian Black Sea ports,” said the Ukrainian minister.

Earlier, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the European Union authorities to consider strengthening sanctions against Russia in the event of a “scaling-up” of the situation in the Azov Sea. In addition, the MEPs proposed to the executive bodies of the Union the creation of the post of “Special Envoy for Crimea and Donbass.”

Poland’s government is interested in establishing a permanent U.S. military presence in their country and they’re willing to pay for it.

The Polish defense ministry said there is a “clear and present need for a permanent U.S. armored division deployed in Poland,” and is willing to provide financial backing to host the soldiers that could reach $2 billion, according to a copy of the proposal obtained by Polish news outlet Onet.

The ”clear and present need” outlined in the document appeared to be sparked by Russia.

“Establishing such a force is necessary to present an unequivocal challenge and deterrence to Russia’s increasingly emboldened and dangerous posture that threatens Europe,” the proposal reads.

Four workers were injured and one is missing as Russia’s largest floating dock quickly went underwater. Its tower crane fell 15 meters, crashing on the country’s only aircraft carrier and piercing a hole in its hull.

The incident occurred at a shipyard in the port city of Murmansk in northwest Russia, where the aircraft carrier ‘Admiral Kuznetsov’ was undergoing planned repair and maintenance. The ship was parked in the floating dry dock PD-50. It could hold up to 80,000 tons, and was considered one of the largest floating docks in the world, as well as Russia’s largest.

The Russian Navy plans to test missiles in international waters off Norway's coast this week, Norwegian and NATO officials say, as the Western military alliance conducts its largest military exercise since the end of the Cold War.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on October 29 the alliance was informed last week about the planned tests.

"Russia has a sizable presence in the north, also off Norway," Stoltenberg told the Norwegian news agency NTB.

"Large [Russian] forces take part in maneuvers and they practice regularly," he added.

Russian officials did not immediately comment on the planned missile tests, which come amid persistent tension between NATO and Russia, which seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and backs separatists in an ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine but accuses the alliance of provocative behavior near its borders.

Syria is Washington’s war, launched by Obama in March 2011, escalated by Trump, no end of it in prospect. It’s all about wanting pro-Western puppet rule replacing the Syrian government, isolating Iran, ahead of a similar scheme to topple its government.

Most Americans are mindless about what’s going on.

Syria is in the eye of the storm, war in its eighth year, Washington using ISIS and other terrorists as imperial proxies, supplemented by US-led terror-bombing, is responsible for massacring thousands of Syrian civilians.

US forces operate in Syria illegally, occupying northern and southern territory on “18 bases in the northeastern and eastern provinces of” the country, according to Fars News.

Russian military analyst Vladimir Kozin said

“the US is training terrorists in 19 military bases in Syria.”

As we approach the third decade of the 21st century, the battle over space will feature prominently. We recall back in the 1980’s, the infamous war-hawk U.S president, Reagan, promised that the Americans would be able to produce a ‘Star Wars’ weapons system, and the program was based on the use of lasers.

But it’s Russia that has made leaps and bounds in the development of space weapons, and weapons that can reach space. The S-500 for example, can reach those objects in near earth orbit which we casually refer to as ‘space’.

The participants of the four-party summit in Istanbul - Russia, Turkey, Germany and France - are committed to the territorial integrity of Syria, according to a communique released by the German government on Saturday.

The leaders of the four nations "confirmed their commitment to sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic," the document reads.

They are "full of determination to resist separatist plans, aimed at undermining sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria, as well as national security of neighboring states."

Besides, the participants of the Istanbul meeting said they were ready to work on creating conditions for the return of refugees and internally displaced persons. This will depend on providing them with "guarantees against armed conflicts, political persecution and unlawful detentions," as well as on rebuilding the country’s infrastructure to make sure that the population has access to water and electricity.

In this brief essay, I will focus precisely on the differing, essentially contradictory understandings of the cause of the Syrian tragedy, of the legitimacy of the Syrian government or ”regime,” and on the way that a political settlement can or cannot achieve what was not achieved on the battlefield by the opponents of President Bashar Assad.

US President Donald Trump earlier announced that Washington would be withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, citing alleged violations by Moscow. Russia has firmly denied the accusations and expressed regret at the decision.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that the US is currently in talks with its EU partners over Washington's decision to withdraw from the INF Treaty.

"We are in consultations with our European counterparts, I was speaking about it the day before with the German defense minister, and so as I said the consultations continue," Mattis said.

Declaring that “there is a new strategic reality out there,” President Donald Trump’s hardline national security advisor John Bolton announced during a visit to Moscow earlier this week that the United States would be withdrawing from the 31-year-old Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. “This was a Cold War bilateral ballistic missile-related treaty,” Bolton said, “in a multi-polar ballistic missile world.”

“It is the American position that Russia is in violation,” Bolton told reporters after a 90-minute meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Russia’s position is that they aren’t. So one has to ask how to ask the Russians to come back into compliance with something they don’t think they’re violating.”

Russia introduced a draft resolution aimed to preserve the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty to the UN General Assembly First Committee after the US announced a unilateral withdrawal from the pact.

The First Committee of the UN General Assembly, also known as Disarmament and International Security Committee, declined on Friday to hear Russia's draft resolution in support of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

Russia proposed the draft resolution to the committee, but the US delegation protested against it. On Friday, the committee voted on whether the resolution draft should be reviewed.

Riyadh is ready to invest $5 billion in the LNG 2 (liquefied natural gas) project in the Russian Arctic, the head of Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Kirill Dmitriev, said at the Saudi Arabian investment forum on Tuesday.

Earlier, Saudi Minister of Energy Khalid al-Falih said the kingdom was considering the possibility of becoming the second biggest investor in the project led by Novatek, Russia’s biggest independent gas producer. The minister didn’t provide details on Saudi Arabia’s potential share in the project.

As its coal and nuclear power plants are phased out German demand for gas will continue to rise as European production continues to fall. Soon Germany may need more gas than Nordstream 1 and 2 can deliver. The announced new LNG terminal is seen as a concession to Washington but it may just as easily be used by Russian LNG suppliers

Riyadh is planning to provide major investments into the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) with the fund expected to be renamed, according to the head of RDIF, Kirill Dmitriev.

“In the near future, we will announce that Saudi Arabia is investing in RCIF and the fund will be renamed as the Russian-Chinese-Saudi Fund,” Dmitriev said at the Future Investment Initiative (FII), Saudi Arabia’s international investment forum.

NATO is working on both the EU and Ukraine to set the framework for some limitation of Russia’s effective control of the encircled sea, with the ultimate aim of entering the Sea of Azov. Russia has reconfirmed earlier in the week that the Sea of Azov is ‘off limits’ to NATO and the U.S, for any purposes including drills and exercises.

According to Ivan Abazher, representative of the Crimean region in the Public Chamber of Russia, as well as serving in other similar roles, “Western forces are interested in increasing tensions around the Sea of ??Azov in order to bring in NATO warships”.

A Tory MP claims Britain must adopt a ‘foreign powers act’ to curb Russian influence that is threatening UK democracy, and warned that politicians must not be “paid influencers for others” – but why focus only on Russia?

Writing in The Times, Tory MP Bob Seely called on the UK government to consider the introduction of a ‘foreign powers act,’ in light of recent controversy surrounding House of Lords peers, such as Lord Greg Barker, who has come under scrutiny for his role as chairman of Russian energy firm EN+.

Russian diplomat Andrei Belousov confirmed Friday that Russia is preparing to defend its territory against any aggression, while the unilateral withdrawal from the INF Treaty by the US signals that Washington is preparing for such aggression.

Andrei Belousov, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department of Nonproliferation and Arms Control, commented on the US unilateral withdrawal from the INF Treaty by saying that Washington is "preparing a war," and that Russia has to get ready to defend its territory, principles and values.

"Recently at a meeting [of the committee], the US stated that Russia is preparing for war. Yes, Russia is preparing for war, I can confirm it," Belousov said after a failed UN First Committee vote on Russia's resolution in support of the INF.

Leaders of Russia, Turkey, Germany and France have gathered in Istanbul to discuss the Syrian peace process. While the outcome of such tricky talks is hard to predict, the new format appears to be, at least, quite refreshing.

Israel is rejecting reported Russian demands that Israel give the Russian military additional warning before carrying out airstrikes in Syria, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman claimed on October 25.

“We will not accept any restrictions on our freedom of operation, and when it comes to national security, we will take action,” the defense minister told Army Radio in an interview.

In an attempt to save the face of the Israeli media, Liberman stated that the Israeli military has carried out more airstrikes on targets in Syria than have been attributed to it by media.

“Just because the media did not report on Syria strikes does not mean there were none,” Liberman said. “I don’t think it’s our duty to report what the army must do. An army needs to act.”

And of course it is a good thing that nobody has been hurt by these devices. Obviously targeting anyone with packages containing explosive materials is terrible, even if those devices were not rigged with the intention of detonating and harming anyone, and it is a good thing that not a single one of them has done so. It is a good thing that none of America’s political elites were targeted by the sort of explosive device that America drops on people in other countries every single day.

You know, the kind that actually explode.

Apparently some Acme comedy bombs mailed to a number of extremely rich people, which thankfully did not hurt anybody at all, are infinitely more newsworthy than the real bombs which maim and destroy children in Yemen on an industrial scale.

— Craig Murray (@CraigMurrayOrg) October 24, 2018

As they were discussing extremely serious issues such as implications of a dissolving INF Treaty, the perpetuation of anti-Russia sanctions, the risk of not extending a new START Treaty and the deployment, in Putin’s words, of “some elements of the missile shield in outer space”, the Russian President got into, well, arrows and olives:

“As I recall, there is a bald eagle pictured on the US coat of arms: it holds 13 arrows in one talon and an olive branch in the other as a symbol of peaceful policy: a branch with 13 olives. My question: has your eagle already eaten all the olives leaving only the arrows?”

Bolton’s response: “I didn’t bring any olives.”

On Wednesday a top Russian defense official warned that it's impossible that Moscow will renegotiate the the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF), said to likely be at the top of the agenda when Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are set to meet in Paris on November 11 on the sidelines of commemorative events of the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

Chairman of the Defense Committee of the State Duma, Vladimir Shamanov, is reported to have said there's "no chances that the nuclear treaty will be renegotiated" citing Russia's position of there being "no turning point" away from the Reagan and Soviet-era 1987 treaty placing restrictions on nuclear-capable missiles and outlining arms reduction agreements.

The Trump administration is pushing ahead with its withdrawal from the INF Treaty. Speaking to Sputnik, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy under President Ronald Reagan, shared his views on the apparent motives and driving forces behind the latest US gambit.

"This is yet another concession to the military-security complex, which is feeding its huge profits with orchestrated fear of Russia, which is then used to secure support from the American people and Congress for more military spending to counter the 'Russian threat'," said Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, commenting on Donald Trump's intention to quit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. The American economist and author served as the US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy under President Ronald Reagan.

Here we go again...

We don't know what's more surprising: That a left-leaning US cable network just tried to blame this week's bomb scare on Russia, or that it only took 48 hours. During a panel last night on MSNBC's "Meet the Press Daily", host Chuck Todd, the cable network's chief political correspondent, told a panel of guests who were debating the motives of the as-yet-unidentified attacker who mailed out more than seven mail bombs to prominent Democrats earlier this week that he has a sneaking suspicion that the bombs could have been a "Russian operation."

This assertion - which, we should reiterate, has zero grounding in the facts -follows reports that President Trump and Vladimir Putin will meet in Paris on Nov. 11.

A US Poseidon-8 reconnaissance plane operated 13 unmanned aerial vehicles that attacked Russia’s Hmeymim airbase in Syria on January 6, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Colonel General Alexander Fomin said at a plenary session of the Beijing Xiangshan Forum on security on October 25.

“Thirteen UAVs moved according to common combat battle deployment, operated by a single crew. During all this time the American Poseidon-8 reconnaissance plane patrolled the Mediterranean Sea area for eight hours,” Colonel General Alexander stated adding that when the UAVs faced Russian “electronic warfare screen, they moved away to some distance, received the corresponding orders and began to be operated out of space and receiving help in finding the so-called holes through which they started penetrating.”

Despite this, seven UAVs were downed, and control over six drones was gained through electronic warfare systems.

Over the past year Russia's chief military base in Syria, Khmeimim Air Base near Latakia (alternately Hmeimim), has come under sporadic waves of attack by small armed drones, which have appeared increasingly sophisticated.

Those attacks were assumed to have been the work of jihadists operating out of Idlib, such as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, who launched the small makeshift drones in an attempt to penetrate Russian defenses, even targeting the Russian naval facility at the Syrian port city of Tartus in addition.

A senior Russian military official has accused the US of being directly involved in a drone attack on the Russian airbase in Syria’s Khmeimim. The aircraft were controlled from a US spy plane nearby, he claimed.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was speaking about a report made by Russia’s Defense Ministry. It said that the drone attack on the Russian airbase was directed from a US P-8 Poseidon surveillance plane.

The base located in Latakia governorate has been attacked by primitive drones on numerous occasions. According to Col. Gen. Aleksandr Fomin, Russia’s deputy defense minister, the attack on January 6 was done with direct help from the American military.

Ukraine contends that following the ‘Russian invasion of Crimea’ – the secession of Crimea from Ukraine and its subsequent rejoining with the Russian Federation – that Russia has also taken effective control of the Sea of Azov. There is some merit to this claim – it is impossible for Ukrainian vessels to enter or leave the sea without permission from the Russian navy.

Additionally, Atlanticist political forces at work in Europe have been able to bring in the issue of the Crimean Bridge that Russian firms built in order to connect mainland Russia with the Crimean Peninsula.

The European Parliament (EP) has prepared a draft resolution proposing to tighten anti-Russian sanctions in the event of a worsening situation in the Sea of ??Azov. The document may be considered at the plenary session of the EP in Strasbourg.

Did John Bolton, the career Russophobic ‘war hawk’ at large, just accidentally recognize Crimea as Russia? It appears so. And it may not be so accidental given the realities of the present situation. US Secretary of Defense James Mattis had previously just done the same in a joint meeting with Sergei Shoigu.

Yesterday, US National Security Adviser to the President John Bolton was on Red Square in Moscow and paid tribute to the victims of the massacre of students and teachers in Russian city Kerch, on the Crimean peninsula, formerly part of post-Soviet Ukraine.

The US Embassy in the Russian Federation actually reported this in their twitter.

“John Bolton laid flowers in memory of the victims of the terrible tragedy that happened last week at the Kerch Polytechnic College,” the report says.

US Marines are landing in Iceland and warplanes are flying overhead in Scandinavia, just days ahead of the kickoff of Trident Juncture. The annual exercise, focused on the Arctic Circle and Scandinavia, is set to be the largest operation since the Cold War.

Washington's unilateral withdrawal from the INF treaty will have a multilateral negative impact. Earlier, Trump committed to withdraw from the accord citing violations on the part of Moscow.

Sputnik discussed whether President Trump will actually go through with his plan to pull out the US from the treaty with Dr. George Szamuely, political analyst and author of "Bombs for Peace: NATO's Humanitarian War on Yugoslavia."

It goes without saying that oil has been central to military power and economic life in modern history. Control of oil has been a key source of power and policy in the Cold War. There was even a top-secret US government plan to ravage the Middle East oil industry in the event of the former Soviet Union gaining control of it. The CIA called it the “denial policy”. It was hatched in 1948 during the Berlin Blockade – whereby, oil wells would be plugged, equipment and fuel stockpiles destroyed, refineries and pipelines disabled to ensure that the USSR never got hold of the Middle East’s oil resources.

An analyst has written, “The history of this top secret U.S. government plot is a tumultuous mix of Arab nationalism, Big Oil and the CIA on the most oil-rich chunk of real estate on earth. Fundamentally, it is a tale of the growing importance of Middle Eastern oil and the West’s early thirst to control it.”

The statement came on the heels of allegations that Russian intelligence attempted to interfere in "democratic processes" in the UK, including elections and referenda. Moscow is facing similar unfounded claims in Europe and the US.

In response to a parliamentary report titled "Disinformation and ‘fake news'" the British government argued that no evidence had been found of successful Russian meddling in UK politics.

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, a cross-party committee in the House of Commons, recommended in the report that the UK cabinet prevents the ongoing FBI probe into alleged Russian meddling from taking the lead on similar investigations in Britain.

It Is Like A Western Movie: A Showdown Is In The Making

Paul Craig Roberts

It has taken the US military/security complex 31 years to get rid of President Reagan’s last nuclear disarmament achievement—the INF Treaty that President Reagan and Soviet President Gorbachev achieved in 1987.

US Marines are landing in Iceland and warplanes are flying overhead in Scandinavia, just days ahead of the kickoff of Trident Juncture. The annual exercise, focused on the Arctic Circle and Scandinavia, is set to be the largest operation since the Cold War.

31 countries are involved, 29 NATO members and Finland and Sweden. They will overall be sending 50,000 troops, 10,000 vehicles, 150 warplanes and 65 ships. Starting Thursday, the exercise will last a month.

And while officials insist it’s not strictly along the Russian border, Russian military officials say it is close enough, and clearly targeted at growing Russian interests in the Arctic Circle, as warmer temperatures open up new route.

Some terrible foreign policy ideas seem to have eternal life. One example is the proposal to expand NATO yet again by offering membership to Georgia and Ukraine. That campaign has gone on for more than a decade and is a significant factor in the West’s deteriorating relations with Russia.

Despite the intra-Alliance resistance to the Bush administration’s campaign to offer MAPs to Kiev and Tbilisi, though, the outcome of the Bucharest summit was not a total defeat for U.S. ambitions. The summit’s final declaration stated that “NATO welcomes Ukraine’s and Georgia’s Euro Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO.” There was no timetable but the ultimate outcome seemed clear.

Google is not covered by the draft law intending to limit foreign participation in news aggregators, Deputy Head of the Russian telecom regulator Roskomnadzor Vadim Subbotin told TASS on Monday.

"Traffic at the time of considering the issue regarding its inclusion into the register of news aggregators was insufficient," Subbotin said. "It is not included into the register of news aggregators now," he noted.

Google "is not covered" at present by the submitted draft law in case it is approved, Subbotin added.

Authors of the draft law say in the explanatory note that "restrictions are offered for the purpose of preventing the threat to public order in Russia and creating thereby comfortable conditions for development of the civil society." Provisions of the bill stipulate a six-month term to bring constituent documents of companies in compliance with new rules.

Tensions in the diplomatic relations between the United States and Russia seem to be ramping up to a potentially pre-war level. The increasingly thought diplomatic rhetoric of both Moscow and Washington as well as hostile US actions against Russia and an active pro-war propaganda campaign within the US military are openly signaling that the sides may posslby soon find themselves on the verge of open regional war.

On October 20, US President Donald Trump declared that the US would be abandoning the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty claiming that the decision comes as response to multiple Russian violations of the treaty, which had put a stop to the development of nuclear and conventional missiles, as well as their launchers, with ranges of 500–1,000 and 1,000–5,500 km.

US President Donald Trump threatned Russia and China that Washington intends to build up its nuclear arsenal until “people come to their senses.”
The president said his words were directed towards Moscow and Beijing, as he prepared to unilaterally leave the Intermediate Nuclear Forces in Europe (INF) treaty. The US president implied China should be part of any new nuclear arms control treaty.

“Russia has not adhered to the agreement,” neither in form or in spirit, Trump told reporters outside the White House on Monday, before departing for a campaign rally in Texas.

Until people come to their senses, we will build it up

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Moscow would deploy new Avangard hypersonic glider warheads in the "coming months," adding that Russia's hypersonic program is the most advanced in the world, according to a new report from the Financial Times.

"We are improving our attack systems in response to the construction of a missile defense system by the United States. Some of them are already in service, and some will be supplied in the near future," said Putin, who was speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi Thursday, adding that Moscow's hypersonic weapons program was well ahead of China and the US.

"The Avangard system [will be deployed] in the next few months."

Every year Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the Valdai Economic Forum. And each year his talk is important. Putin isn’t one to mince words on important issues.

With tensions between Russia and the West reaching Cold War levels, Valdai represented the first time we’ve heard Putin speak in a long-form discussion since Helsinki and the events thereafter — IL-20, Khashoggi, etc.

So, this talk is worth everyone’s time. And when I say everyone’s I mean every single person who could be affected by the breakdown of the U.S. political system and how that spills over onto Russia’s shores.

In other words, pretty much everyone on the planet.

Because what Putin did at Valdai was to lay down the new rules of conduct in geopolitical affairs. He put the U.S. and European oligarchs I call The Davos Crowd on notice.

If the US ditches the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), it could collapse the entire nuclear non-proliferation system, and bring nuclear war even closer, Russian officials warn.

By ending the INF, Washington risks creating a domino effect which could endanger other landmark deals like the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and collapse the existing non-proliferation mechanism as we know it, senior lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev said on Sunday.

The current iteration of the START treaty, which limits the deployment of all types of nuclear weapons, is due to expire in 2021. Kosachev, who chairs the Parliament’s Upper House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned that such an outcome pits mankind against “complete chaos in terms of nuclear weapons.”

On Friday, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration was preparing to exit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty as soon as next week.

Speaking to The Financial Times, British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson has made it plain that London will support Washington's decision to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the US and Russia.

"Our close and long-term ally, of course, is the United States, and we will be absolutely resolute with the United States in hammering home a clear message that Russia needs to respect the [INF] Treaty obligation that it signed," Williamson pointed out.

Washington’s planned withdrawal from the international Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, announced by President Trump on Saturday, has been slammed by Russia as "a very dangerous step" which is ultimately part of "continuing attempts to achieve Russia’s concessions through blackmail" in statements made by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Sunday.

And Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev, who chairs the Russian Parliament’s Upper House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned the move could create a domino effect endangering other landmark deals like the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). The lawmaker said such an outcome pits mankind against “complete chaos in terms of nuclear weapons.”

By scrapping the crucial Cold War era nuclear agreement Trump is destabilizing global security, even if his ultimate goal is to negotiate a ‘better deal’ and to include other parties like China, geopolitical experts have told RT.

“The United States would rather pull out because of China. Right now it cannot develop new intermediate-range missiles to confront China, even though China is not a signatory to that agreement,” former Pentagon official Michael Maloof said, after Donald Trump announced the US intention to scrap the INF treaty.

“The US is engaged in an arms race with China in the Pacific Ocean, and China has a whole bunch of those missiles that are not covered,” Iranian political scientist Kaveh Afrasiabi added, calling Trump's announcement a “giant leap backward to the Cold War era.”

On Friday, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration was preparing to exit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty as soon as next week.

Speaking to The Financial Times, British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson has made it plain that London will support Washington's decision to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the US and Russia.

"Our close and long-term ally, of course, is the United States, and we will be absolutely resolute with the United States in hammering home a clear message that Russia needs to respect the [INF] Treaty obligation that it signed," Williamson pointed out.

Moscow's offer to Washington to exchange written guarantees about non-interference in each other’s affairs earlier this year was rejected by the US. That’s what the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department of North America Georgy Borisenko told Sputnik in an interview. Sputnik discussed it with independent political analyst Stephen Ebert.

A Washington federal judge on Thursday ordered special counsel Robert Mueller's team to clarify election meddling claims lodged against a Russian company operated by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Bloomberg.

Concord Management and Consulting, LLC. - one of three businesses indicted by Mueller in February along with 13 individuals for election meddling, surprised the special counsel in April when they actually showed up in court to fight the charges. Mueller's team tried to delay Concord from entering the case, arguing that thee Russian company not been properly served, however Judge Dabney Friedrich denied the request - effectively telling prosecutors 'well, they're here.'

On Thursday, Judge Freidrich asked Mueller's prosecutors if she should assume they aren't accusing Concord of violating US laws applicable to election expenditures and failure to register as a foreign agent.

National security adviser John Bolton is traveling to Russia for talks early next week with top Russian officials that are likely to cover a variety of high-priority issues for the administration.

The trip is Bolton’s first to Moscow since he went to broker the details of the now infamous Helsinki summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin last July.

The visit comes amid high tensions with Moscow on several fronts, including the conflict in Syria and the poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Britain earlier this year.

Bolton is expected in his meetings with Russian officials next week to further discussions on issues that Putin and Trump discussed in July, including Syria, where Moscow says it has delivered a S-300 missile defense system — in defiance of warnings from the Trump administration and Israel.

The talks are also likely to cover Iran, efforts to denuclearize North Korea, Israeli security and nuclear arms treaties.

Foreign banks will soon be able to become part of Russia's money transfer network which serves as an alternative to the traditional SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) system.

“Non-residents will start connecting to us this year. People are already turning to us,” said First Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Russia Olga Skorobogatova. Earlier, the official said that by using the alternative payment system foreign firms would be able to do business with sanctioned Russian companies.

Years of US allegations that Russia is violating the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) may be coming to a head, with John Bolton reportedly pushing hard for President Trump to withdraw outright from the pact.

Instead of negotiating over the questions, Bolton wants the US to just withdraw outright, despite that being a major escalation on tensions with Russia. State Department and Pentagon officials are both opposed to this.

The administration was to have talks on Monday to discuss Bolton’s idea, but this has been postponed, at least for now. Still, Congress is also pushing for action on Russia, as part of general hostility toward Russia.

US Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison suggested that the US was preparing to preemptively attack Russia and “take out” the missiles they consider a violation. Bolton’s pullout, while intended as a provocation, appears to be at least somewhat less-so than attacking Russia outright.

Ukrainian forces used 122mm artillery, mortars, weapons on armored vehicles, grenade launchers and small arms

The Justice Department has brought its first criminal case over alleged Russian interference in the 2018 midterm elections.

Elena Khusyaynova, 44, a St. Petersburg, Russia-based accountant, was charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to defraud the United States for taking part in a scheme to spend in excess of $10 million since the beginning of the year on targeted social media ads and web postings intended “to sow division and discord in the U.S. political system.”

Khusyaynova, who is not in U.S. custody, allegedly works for Concord, a Russia-based firm that special counsel Robert Mueller's office indicted in February for alleged interference in the 2016 election.

A crucial Pentagon report on the US defense industrial base and “supply chain resiliency” bluntly accuses China of “military expansion” and “a strategy of economic aggression,” mostly because Beijing is the only source for “a number of chemical products used in munitions and missiles.”

Russia is mentioned only once, but in a crucial paragraph: as a – what else – “threat,” alongside China, for the US defense industry.

Nineteen foreign aircraft had been detected while carrying out reconnaissance activities near the Russian border over the past week, the Russian Armed Forces' official newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda reported on Friday.

Russian aircraft had been scrambled eight times to prevent foreign jets from crossing the Russian border, the outlet added.

Neither the White House, nor Bolton himself has commented on the reported recommendation letter.

John Bolton, US President Donald Trump’s third national security adviser, has issued a formal recommendation for withdrawal from the 1987 intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty referred to as INF, according to sources briefed on the initiative and cited by The Guardian.

Bolton reportedly said Russia has been violating the treaty by developing a new cruise missile.

Meanwhile, neither the White House, nor John Bolton has commented on the issue yet.

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at the Valdai Forum in Sochi. He was sharp and categorical. He spoke about the enemies of Russia, about the fearlessness of the country and the readiness of its inhabitants to die for the idea. He did not ignore the events in Kerch. Lenta.ru collected the most emotional quotes of the president.

Whose Crimea

“Crimea is ours. We are not going anywhere. And why ours? It’s not because we came and grabbed.”

“Everybody has democracy here. What is democracy? This is the power of the people. How is it confirmed? With the help of referendums, elections and so on. People came to the referendum in the Crimea and voted: we want to be a) independent, the next step is to be part of the Russian Federation. ”

Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development said on Thursday that Moscow and Beijing are working on an inter-governmental agreement to boost the use of the ruble and yuan in mutual trade settlements.

“The document is currently being prepared, the process is not easy,” said Deputy Minister of Russia’s Economic Development Sergey Gorkov, as quoted by TASS. “Russia and China have had some experience of using national currencies in bilateral trade.”

Gorkov added that Russia and China have been successfully implementing the terms of ruble-yuan currency swap agreement, clinched in 2014 to boost trade using national currencies and eliminate dependence on the dollar and the euro. The deal was extended at the end of 2017.

The Arabic-language Baladi News website affiliated to the terrorists reported on Thursday that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are busy with drilling operations in an area stretching from the Brigade 17 region to Sahlat al-Banat region in Northeast of Raqqa city and from Sahlat al-Banat region to the North of the Sugar plant in Northern Raqqa.

It added that operations to build the walls and construction of buildings in the area will start after drilling operations, noting that a military base is due to be set up for the French forces with the aim of supporting the SDF in Raqqa.

According to the report, the US military troops are in talks with the SDF to further equip al-Tabaqah airbase in Western Raqqa and turn it into their new military base in the region next year.

Sources in the past few months said that the French army has sent weapons, military equipment and forces to Raqqa.

Russia's nuclear doctrine does not stipulate a preemptive strike, but Moscow is determined to respond to any first strike by a potential aggressor, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

"…about whether we are ready, whether I am ready, to use the weapons at our disposal, including weapons of mass destruction, to protect our interests. I will remind you what I said, and I said that in our concept of nuclear weapons use there is no notion of a preemptive strike," Putin said speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club forum.