US Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that relations between his country and the US are experiencing "a deep crisis"

Lavrov expressed opposition to attempts of US officials and the Western media to politicise the legal case

Ryabkov clarified that Russia would adhere to the restrictions outlined in the treaty on a voluntary basis, and would continue to implement a 1988 bilateral agreement between US and Soviet Union

Russia's intelligence agency said that Gershkovich has been detained for "acting on the instructions of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret"

The Biden administration is offering support for the creation of an international court to prosecute alleged crimes of aggression by Russia against Ukraine. In comments this week, senior U.S. officials said the administration believes that would be the best way to hold Russia accountable for its year-old invasion. However, they also acknowledge that the prospects for a court to actually take custody of any Russian official for trial are slim. The United States supports the development of a special tribunal on the crime of aggression against Ukraine in the form of an internationalized court that is rooted in Ukraine's judicial system, with international elements, the State Department said in comments emailed to reporters. The officials said they envision a hybrid tribunal based on the Ukrainian justice system but with international components similar to previous ad hoc war crimes courts set up for Cambodia, Chad, the Central African Republic and Bosnia and likely based in The Hague

The Pentagon released a de-classified video on Thursday showing a Russian military jet intercept a US drone downed over the Black Sea two days ago

Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said he spoke to his Russian counterpart on Wednesday about the destruction of a US drone over the Black Sea, which had brought the two countries closest to direct conflict since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine a year ago. It was the first call between Austin and Defence Secretary Sergei Shoigu since October. I just got off the phone with my Russian counterpart, Minister Shoigu, Austin said at a Pentagon press briefing. As I've said repeatedly, it's important that great powers be models of transparency and communication, and the United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows. The US military said it ditched the Air Force MQ-9 Reaper in the sea after a Russian fighter jet struck its propeller. Russia has denied that it caused the incident. The US has said it was working on declassifying surveillance footage from the drone that would show Tuesday's crash. That Austin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu were talki

Naval forces from China, Iran and Russia all countries at varying degrees of odds with the United States are staging joint drills in the Gulf of Oman this week, China's Defence Ministry has announced. Other countries are also taking part in the Security Bond-2023 exercises, the ministry said Tuesday without giving details. Iran, Pakistan, Oman and the United Arab Emirates all have coastline along the waterbody lying at the mouth of the strategic Persian Gulf. This exercise will help deepen practical cooperation between the participating countries' navies ... and inject positive energy into regional peace and stability, the ministry statement said. The exercises scheduled for Wednesday through Sunday come amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and China over a range of issues, including China's refusal to criticise Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine and continuing support for the Russian economy. The U.S. and its allies have condemned the invasion, imposed punishing economic

Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Sunday said that the main cause of his country's difference with the US and its allies was its strong opposition to creation of a unipolar world

Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement Tuesday that Moscow is suspending its participation in the last remaining U.S.-Russia arms control treaty will have an immediate impact on U.S. visibility into Russian nuclear activities, but the pact was already on life support. Putin's decision to suspend Russian cooperation with the treaty's nuclear warhead and missile inspections follows Moscow's cancellation late last year of talks that had been intended to salvage an agreement that both sides have accused the other of violating. In his state-of-the-nation address to the Russian people, Putin said Russia was withdrawing from the treaty because of U.S. support to Ukraine, and he accused the U.S. and its NATO allies of openly working for Russia's destruction. The U.S. had previously walked away from the treaty. During the Trump administration, the U.S. declined to engage in negotiations to extend it, accusing Moscow of flagrant violations. But when President Joe Biden took office in

Russia's refusal to allow on-the-ground inspections to resume is endangering the New START nuclear treaty and US-Russian arms control overall, the Biden administration charged on Tuesday. The finding was delivered to Congress and summarized in a statement by the State Department. It follows months of more hopeful US assessments that the two countries would be able to salvage cooperation on limiting strategic nuclear weapons despite high tensions over Russia's war on Ukraine. Inspections of US and Russian military sites under the New START treaty were paused by both sides because of the spread of the coronavirus in March 2020. The US-Russia committee overseeing implementation of the treaty last met in October 2021, but Russia then unilaterally suspended its cooperation with the treaty's inspection provisions in August 2022 to protest US support for Ukraine. "Russia's refusal to facilitate inspection activities prevents the United States from exercising important rights under the trea

The European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have agreed to set up a task force to better protect critical infrastructure and increase resilience

Russia's Foreign Ministry warned Thursday that if the U.S. delivers sophisticated air defense systems to Ukraine, those systems and any crews that accompany them would be a legitimate target for the Russian military, a blunt threat that was quickly rejected by Washington. The exchange of statements reflected soaring Russia-U.S. tensions amid the fighting in Ukraine, which is now in its 10th month. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the U.S. had effectively become a party to the war by providing Ukraine with weapons and training its troops. She added that if reports about U.S. intentions to provide Kyiv with Patriot surface-to-air missile system prove true, it would become another provocative move by the U.S. and broaden its involvement in the hostilities, "entailing possible consequences. Any weapons systems supplied to Ukraine, including the Patriot, along with the personnel servicing them, have been and will remain legitimate priority targets for the Russian

The Pentagon will expand military combat training for Ukrainian forces, using the slower winter months to instruct larger units in more complex battle skills, the Defense Department and U.S. officials said Thursday. The U.S. has already trained about 3,100 Ukrainian troops on how to use and maintain certain weapons and other equipment, including howitzers, armored vehicles and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS. But senior military leaders for months have discussed expanding that training, stressing the need to improve the ability of Ukraine's company- and battalion-sized units to move and coordinate attacks across the battlefield. Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told Pentagon reporters Thursday that the U.S. expects to train about 500 Ukrainian troops each month and will begin in the January timeframe. Ryder, the Pentagon's press secretary, added that it is not likely to require additional U.S. forces to conduct the training. According to U.S. officials, the

The unprecedented move by one set of countries to try to impose a price at which another can sell a commodity has drawn confusion among traders, and - from Moscow - a threat of retaliation

Wider October trade deficit, contraction in exports drag down rupee

The United States and Russia will soon hold talks on resuming suspended nuclear arms control inspections that had been put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic and languished after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the State Department said Tuesday. State Department spokesman Ned Price said negotiations on the inspections would take place in the near future under the terms of the New START treaty and would not include any discussion of the conflict in Ukraine. He would not give a date or a venue for the talks but other officials suggested they would be held before the end of the year, likely in Egypt. The meeting of the treaty's so-called Bilateral Consultative Commission will be the first in more than a year, and is intended to show that the two countries remain committed to arms control and keeping lines of communication open despite other differences. We believe deeply around the world in the transformative power and the importance of diplomacy and dialogue, Price told reporters in

The Biden administration is committed to work with India on its transition away from Russia, the White House has said. It said there are a number of countries that have learned the hard way of the fact that Moscow is not a reliable source of energy or security. When it comes to India's relationship with Russia, the US has consistently made the point that it is a relationship, that developed and was cemented over the course of decades, really came to be during the Cold War at a time when the United States was not in a position to be an economic partner, a security partner, a military partner to India, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at a news conference here Tuesday. That has changed. That's changed over the past 25 or so years. It's really a legacy, a bipartisan legacy that this country has achieved over the course of the past quarter century. President George W Bush's administration was really the first to put this into effect, he said Price said the US has

"If it was not for the Iranian supply of weapons to the aggressor, we would be closer to peace now," Zelensky said Sunday evening in his daily address

Tetra Tech will strengthen the Government of Ukraine's capacity to locate and remove landmines, unexploded and abandoned ordnance, improvised explosive devices