Iran and Russia on Tuesday condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to maintain a military presence near oil fields in northeastern Syria, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying any exploitation of resources would be illegal.
Attorney General Bill Barr, in an interview with Fox News, defended the independence and integrity of the politically contentious probe being led by U.S. Attorney John Durham into the handling of the Russia investigation – while taking a swipe at James Comey’s past leadership of the FBI.
The United States is still in talks with Turkey to get Ankara to ‘walk away’ from the Russian missile defense system it bought, a senior State Department official said on Friday, but warned Turkey that the risk of sanctions over the issue persisted.
Russia will test its internal RuNet network to see whether the country can function without the global internet, the Russian government announced Monday. The tests will begin after Nov. 1, recur at least annually, and possibly more frequently. It’s the latest move in a series of technical and policy steps intended to allow the Russian government to cut its citizens off from the rest of the world.
A U.S. Justice Department review of the origins of the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election is now a criminal investigation, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The Pentagon says it will bolster the U.S. military presence in a northeastern region of Syria to prevent potentially resurgent Islamic State (IS) extremists from seizing the oil fields.
Syrian Kurdish leader General Mazlum Kobani was on the phone with the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and got support from Washington on Wednesday, two weeks after it seemed his Syrian Democratic Forces were on the ropes against Turkey.
Syrian and Russian forces will deploy in northeast Syria to remove Kurdish YPG fighters and their weapons from the border with Turkey under a deal agreed on Tuesday which both Moscow and Ankara hailed as a triumph.
U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the FBI’s 2016 Russia probe has expanded based on new evidence uncovered during a recent trip to Rome with Attorney General Bill Barr, sources told Fox News on Tuesday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on October 22 will hold discussions with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on developments in northeastern Syria, where Turkey has launched an offensive against Kurdish forces.
Germany should leverage its U.N. Security Council membership to push for an ‘internationally-controlled security zone’ in Syria, the country’s defense minister said on Monday.
Russia covered up the deadly nuclear reactor explosion in August during the salvage at sea of one of Vladimir Putin’s new superweapons, a nuclear-powered cruise missile called Skyfall, a senior State Department official disclosed.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday he would discuss the deployment of Syrian government forces in a planned ‘safe zone’ in northern Syria during talks with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin next week, but warned Ankara would ‘implement its own plans’ if a solution was not reached.
US President Donald Trump’s newly announced withdrawal of nearly all US troops from northern Syria has cemented Russia’s status as the predominant global military power actively engaged in the Middle East.
Russia says it won’t allow clashes between Turkish and Syrian forces as Turkey pressed its offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria.
Russia called Turkey’s military incursion into northeast Syria ‘unacceptable’ and said on Tuesday the operation had to be limited in time and scale, a rare broadside that suggests Moscow’s patience with Ankara is wearing thin.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan could help Russia in multiple ways if he continues to undermine the effectiveness of NATO from within the transatlantic alliance, according to diplomats and analysts.
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin spoke with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan about Syria by phone and invited him to visit Russia in the next few days, the Kremlin said late on Tuesday.
Russia and Saudi Arabia signed a package of deals valued at $2 billion during President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the kingdom on Monday – just days after the Trump administration announced it would deploy another 3,000 U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia amid high tensions in the Persian Gulf.
President Vladimir Putin signaled Moscow’s growing Middle East clout on Monday on his first visit to Saudi Arabia in over a decade, buoyed by Russian military gains in Syria, strong ties with Riyadh’s regional rivals and energy cooperation.