The chiefs of Russia’s Federal Agency for Tourism (Rostourism) are discontent with Chinese business, which allegedly help illegal tourists cluster. The conflict may influence not only the tourism business, but also a Chinese Business Centre, located in Saint-Petersburg, as well as to spoil […]

Russia had not yet managed to signal its interest in Libya, when UK defense minister Michael Fallon, speaking at an international security conference in Munich, said with clear irritation, “We certainly don’t need Russia, we don’t need the bear sticking its paws in.

Some of the most important international news bulletins have been the reports coming out of the Middle East, beginning in 2011 when the Obama administration kicked off the Arab Spring. It seems that the world has become accustomed to the waves of violence that are flooding that region. But in 2016 there was a series of events that to some degree signaled new political trends, which inspire some degree of optimism for the future…

The West is feverishly seeking someone to blame for the catastrophic situation in the Middle East. Following on from John Kerry, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has announced his intention to request that the International Criminal Court investigate Russian «war crimes» in Syria. 

As recently acknowledged by The Washington Post, US Special Forces are directly involved in military operations in Libya, «coordinating American airstrikes and providing intelligence information» to local forces battling the Islamic State (IS) for Sirte, 450 kilometres to the east of Tripoli…

The media circulated reports in early August that Moscow and Cairo had agreed on a contract to build Egypt’s first nuclear power plant. The Egyptian president’s official spokesman released a statement that «the Egyptian minister of electricity has presented the president with the final version of the contract to build the Dabaa nuclear plant [the site is not far from Alexandria – A. K.] and informed him that all the previously unresolved issues with the Russians have now been settled»…

In recent weeks the bombing of Syria has been stepped up. Russia’s Aerospace Defense Forces has been wiping out the die-hard militants, carving out four corridors that can be used to evacuate the civilian population, plus one corridor through which the «moderate» opposition can leave together with their weapons, but planes from the US-led coalition are conducting airstrikes over homes and civilian infrastructure in areas nominally under the control of the Islamic State…

Some memorable terrorist attacks took place in Saudi Arabia on July 4. Suicide bombers set off explosions at mosques in Qatif, Jeddah, and Medina, the second holiest site in Islam. The bombing in Medina was particularly painful for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Islamic State terrorists who are suspected in the attacks were able to use this blast as proof that the royal family is unable to ensure the security of the Hajj or maintain order at holy sites…

The five-year war in Syria has caused horrendous damage to that country’s people, economy, and infrastructure, as well as traumatizing the nation’s collective consciousness. Approximately half a million Syrians have been killed, and another six million have fled the country after becoming homeless. The damage to the Syrian economy is estimated at $180 billion…

Something very unusual happened last spring at the White House: the president of the United States admitted that America’s 2011 incursion into Libya, which led to the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, had been a mistake. And yet the US decision to intervene in Libya had certainly not been a spontaneous or hasty move. It was carefully thought out and intended to achieve at least two goals…