Russia & CIS

China's Xinhua news agency, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, has released a detailed and harsh statement about recent information attacks against Russia and China. Such attacks are enthusiastically conducted by bloggers, Western press and liberal media of Russia and Ukraine

The BBC that has repeatedly found itself in the midst of corruption scandals has released a propaganda documentary about Russian President Putin. This is how we can see the professional purity of the BBC journalism. What can we expect from the corporation that referred to the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin as "The Tomb of the Unknown Rapist?"

Historically, Russia has always fought intuitively for the survival of all mankind. Of course, the events do not always look this way. But whatever they look like, this huge country has repeatedly rebuffed the most powerful forces of evil which were becoming a threat to the very existence of our planet.

Why did Russia start the operation? The analysis shows that the fall of Damascus would have become a powerful factor for the Islamic State to strengthen and expand further. Syria has been our historical ally, and Russia could not leave Syria to the mercy of fate. It took Russian military men months to develop the Syrian operation

The Russian economy may recover in the next two years regardless of what will be happening to oil prices, former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said. the creation of federal reserves, the reduction of the Russian public debt and the free floating of the national currency may resume the growth of the Russian economy

the mass perception of Putin as the new leader is associated with the fact that 1999 became the year, when elderly Russians started receiving their pensions without delays for the first time in years. Afterwards, from 2004 to 2008, a completely new consumer environment was created. The Russians renewed their home appliances, many bought cars

A couple of recent announcements indicate that Russian shipbuilders are continuing to struggle with construction of new types of ships. First came the announcement, right at the end of 2015, that the commissioning of the Admiral Gorshkov frigate was being delayed for another year, until the end of 2016. At the same time, the navy announced that the Admiral Grigorovich frigate will be commissioned in the first quarter of 2016. It had previously been expected to be commissioned in May 2015, before being repeatedly pushed back. In addition, commissioning of the lead ship of the Alexandrit class (Project 12700) of minewsweepers has been pushed back yet again, to May 2016. It was originally planned to be in the fleet back in 2013. And sea trials of the Ivan Gren amphibious ship were also delayed until the first quarter of 2016. As a result, in 2015 the Russian Navy received no new blue water surface ships.

On the other hand, it lost the services of several ships, including the Steregushchiy corvette that suffered a fire in April and both Neustrashimyi class frigates. The latter ships are waiting to be overhauled at Yantar shipyard, but the overhaul will take a long time since Ukraine will not supply replacement engines for the ships. The lack of engines will delay construction on most of the larger classes of surface ships, including Project 22350 (Admiral Gorshkov class hulls 3-4), Project 11356 (Admiral Gorshkov class hulls 4-6), and Project 20385 (Stereguschiy class variant, replaced by Project 20380 with less reliable Russian-built engines).

Submarine construction may seem better on the surface, with the commissioning of two Improved Kilo class ((Project 636) diesel submarines and the return to active service in 2015 of the Akula class submarine Gepard and the Sierra class submarine Pskov after length overhauls. While there is no doubt that Russian submarine construction is in much better shape than the construction of ocean-going surface ships, there are problems here as well. First of all, despite being commissioned back in 2013, the Severodvinsk SSN remains in sea trials for the third year.

But more importantly, development of a new class of diesel-electric submarines appears to be in trouble. Problems with propulsion systems have long delayed commissioning of the lead vessel of the Lada class, resulting in the decision taken several years ago to build six Improved Kilo class submarines for the Black Sea Fleet. The Russian Navy appeared to be moving on in announcing the successor Kalina class, which was to have air-independent propulsion systems (AIP). Russian experts argued that AIP would be ready by 2017-18, and the new submarines could be built relatively quickly after that. However, the Russian Navy recently announced, with quite a bit of fanfare, that it had ordered another six Improved Kilo class submarines for the Pacific Fleet. These are very good submarines, which undoubtedly be equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles that will give them a potent anti-ship and land-attack capability. But the implication of this announcement is that the Russian Navy does not expect to receive any of the new Kalina class submarines any time soon, and is therefore ordering the tried and true submarines to fill the gap.

All in all, it seems that Russian shipbuilding is continuing to “tread water,” successfully building ships that it has already built in the past but having serious problems with delays in the new projects that were expected to form the core of the Russian Navy in the 2020s.

The Soviet Union did not break up because of the oil prices, although it did create a number of problems for the country. The myth was created to conceal the consciously made choice of the then Soviet administration. The choice was to deliberately destroy the Soviet Union. They lied when they said that the Soviet Union was starving in 1990-1991 because of very poor harvest

The Russian government plans to nominate Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukyaev into the board of directors of the natural gas giant Gazprom, a government source said Tuesday.

A new "reset" in the U.S.-Russian relationship is possible, "depending on what the U.S. will get for it," former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a televised Democratic Party presidential debate on Sunday.

A 26-year-old Muscovite is demanding a compensation of some $230,000 (18 million rubles) for a failure to control her junk food feeding frenzy, accusing money-saving websites of failing to warn her that continually filling up with her favorite high fat treats would lead to her body blowing up like a balloon.

Russia has been paying the PACE, the Council of Europe and the European Court for Human Rights for years. It just so happens that all these payments were made to receive criticism and listen to anti-Russian remarks, Russian officials said. In April 2014, Russia was stripped of its powers in the organization because of the crisis in Ukraine

Vladimir Putin will hold on Tuesday a meeting of the Military-Industrial Commission, a body created to coordinate operations of the Defense Ministry.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said that the total effect can be estimated at 0.5 percentage points of economic growth lost because of sanctions, while three percentage points were lost due to a decline in oil prices.

The dollar exchange rate to the ruble grew 1.40 rubles to 79 rubles, and the euro increased 1.34 rubles to hit 86.02 rubles on the wake of oil trading after sanctions were lifted from Iran, according to currency exchange market trading statistics.

According to Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia managed to hit new oil supply record in 2015 despite the pressure exerted on the country's oil and gas industry by Western sanctions.

According to a report, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries expects Russian GDP to grow in 2016 by 0.3 percent.

Russia could suspend loans to foreign countries as the country's budget continues to be strained by economic recession, the Interfax news agency reported Monday, citing Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak.

The ruble weakened sharply on Monday morning as the price of oil fell to new lows, worsening the outlook for Russia's recession-hit economy.