WORLD

Beijing maintains an “independent” stance on the Ukraine crisis, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, Zhao Lijian, said during a press conference on Friday. The remark came in response to threats made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who warned China on Thursday that Washington would “impose costs” on …

Economic sanctions have been the cornerstone of US policy toward Iran for more than two decades. It turns out that, as the US moves to lift sanctions on that nation by rejoining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), global energy security is more important than the much-hyped Iranian nuclear …

A direct meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his  Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, depends on the “modality” of the document they were to sign, a Kremlin official said on Friday. Answering a journalist’s question on whether the document settling the conflict in Ukraine requires both presidents signing it in …

“Chaotic, unfairly distributed, funding completely unclear” – these words encapsulate the current situation in many German towns, which have been facing an ever-growing influx of Ukrainian refugees in recent weeks, the mayor of Dormagen am Rhein told Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper on Thursday. Erik Lierenfeld described how his town recently had …

Russia suspects Pentagon-funded bioresearch laboratories in foreign nations, including those in Ukraine, may pose a threat because of the secrecy surrounding their work, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told RT. Washington apparently didn’t want to risk exposing its own people to the pathogenic threat, he suggested. “The Americans some years ago …

Relying on import substitution to minimize the effect of sanctions imposed over the Ukrainian conflict doesn’t mean isolating the Russian economy from the rest of the world, Igor Shuvalov, who heads state development corporation VEB.RF, has pointed out, in an exclusive interview with RT. Since Crimea voted to reunite with …

First published in Russian on globalaffairs.ru Russia’s military operation in Ukraine and the consequent economic embargo of Moscow by the West is the largest upheaval in world politics since at least the end of the Cold War. The result will be a complete reformatting of the country’s foreign economic relations …

On Friday, the European Parliament (EP) formally banned Russian and Belarusian officials from entering its premises, vowing support for Ukraine instead. Neither nation is a member of the body, which acts as the legislature of the European Union (EU). “As of today, diplomatic and government staff of Russia and Belarus …

More than 200 civilians have been rescued unharmed from the bombed Mariupol Drama Theater, and one injured woman has been taken to hospital, the deputy mayor of the city told reporters on Friday. Initial claims from Kiev estimated over 1,000 people may have been killed in what they said was …

Burger King won’t be able to join the exodus of Western corporations pulling out of Russia to make a public statement about the Ukraine crisis. The fast-food giant said its local partners want to keep its 800 restaurants open, and legal agreements don’t allow the chain to shut them down …