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I shot down McCain A retired Red Army Lieutenant who fought in Vietnam has confessed to shooting down the plane of defeated presidential candidate, John McCain. Colonel Yuriy Trushechkin told Russia’s Moskovsky Komsomolets he had no regrets about downing the future Senator’s aircraft back in 1967. Journalists from Russia’s most popular tabloid paper found the veteran in a St Petersburg hospital. Trushechkin said he still hated John McCain and wasn’t at all sorry for what he had done all those years ago. He added he was very happy that McCain didn’t make to the White House. ”He always hated the...

Russia's Gambit By Vasko Kohlmayer FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, November 17, 2008 On November 5th – less than 24 hours after the victory of Barack Obama in the US presidential race – Russian President Dmitri Medvedev announced that his country would install short-range semiballistic missiles in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad. The deployment is part of Russia’s bid to halt the construction of the Ballistic Missile Defense Shield in Europe, a project virulently opposed by the Kremlin. Medvedev’s statement is a clear indication that after months of threats and intimidation, the Russian leadership has finally settled on a definitive course of...

‘Antimissile shield in Poland provokes Russia’ Italian PM says Created: 13.11.2008 10:35 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi stated yesterday that the deployment of the US antimissile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic is a “provocation” against Russia. “Let’s speak frankly: we believe that there have been some provocations against the Russian federation such as the project to deploy missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic,” Berlusconi said. Italy’s PM reminded that the Russian president Dmitrij Medvedev’s response to that plan was to announce the deployment of missiles in – as Berlusconi put it – “the Russian enclave in the...

Warsaw and Prague dismiss Sarkozy's missile shield plea POLAND AND the Czech Republic have dismissed an appeal by French president Nicolas Sarkozy to freeze talks on their plans to host a controversial US missile defence shield, which Russia fiercely opposes, writes Daniel McLaughlin Moscow has threatened to station missiles in its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad - wedged between EU and Nato members Poland and Lithuania - if the US plan goes ahead, and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev appeared to have persuaded Mr Sarkozy of the delicacy of the issue at Friday's EU-Russia meeting in Nice. "As president of the European...

ussia expects its trade with Latin American countries to reach $15bn by the end of 2008, the Foreign Ministry's information and press department said, quoting head of the ministry Sergei Lavrov today. He noted that the figure was rising rapidly, growing 25 to 30 percent per year

The Russian Army, long known for the overwhelming depth of its human resources, is now seeking out arms technology that reduces the need for putting soldiers in harm’s way. As Ha’aretz, the Israeli daily, reported yesterday, the Russia is looking to buy unmanned aerial vehicles, or U.A.V.’s, from Israel. Apparently, the Russian military liked what it saw during the conflict in Georgia (of course, at the time, any flattery was plainly destructive): The Russian initiative comes as part of the lessons learned from last summer’s war with Georgia in South Ossetia and from Russian officials’ positive impressions of the Hermes...

Usually we see Muslims trying to stifle our freedom of speech. It happened in Michigan and the United Nations. But this time it was not even Muslims, it was Russian prosecutors. I wonder if these prosecutors find the Koran insulting to non-Muslims? That is if they even bothered to read one.

ANKARA, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Russia's Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Tuesday he was concerned by what he called Georgia's efforts to boost its military potential, adding this could have bigger consequences than August's conflict.

19/11/2008 17:25 MOSCOW, November 19 (RIA Novosti) - Around 80-100% of the Russian Armed Forces will be equipped with modern weapons and military hardware by 2018-2020, the Russian General Staff chief said on Wednesday. "In the next 3-5 years we plan to equip 30% of the Armed Forces with advanced weapons and military hardware and to raise this figure to 80-100% by 2018-2020," Gen. of the Army Nikolai Makarov said. He also said the command staff of Russia's Defense Ministry and the General Staff of the Armed Forces was also overstaffed and inefficient and failing to carry out its tasks...

Moscow, Nov 20 - Russia has granted NATO-member Germany permission to ship weapons and equipment for its force in Afghanistan overland through Russia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

ECHOES OF the Cold War have returned to Nato headquarters in Brussels after an Estonian general was unmasked as a “sleeper” spy who passed top secret alliance information to Moscow. Herman Simm (61), a retired official in Estonia’s defence ministry, has been arrested along with his wife on suspicion that they were recruited by KGB officers before the collapse of the Soviet Union. After Estonia’s independence in 1991, state prosecutors believe Mr Simm made contact with the KGB’s successor foreign intelligence agency, the SVR. The former police chief was the perfectly placed mole: between 1995 and 2006 he helped set...

Moscow (CNSNews.com) – Ahead of an expected meeting between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and President Bush in Peru this weekend, Russian officials and military commanders continue to make public comments about deploying missiles in Europe in response to U.S. missile defense plans. Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said Tuesday that the U.S. plans for missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic leave Russia with no option but to take steps to neutralize the emerging threat near its western borders. The day after the U.S. presidential election, Medvedev in a state of the nation address announced plans to deploy Iskander...

Alliances among America’s enemies have been accelerating at an unprecedented rate. As reported by FrontPage throughout this year, Russia, Cuba and Venezuela have recently signed numerous economic and military agreements. Now, at the end of this month, the three nations are gathering once again for a series of historic meetings.

While this economic storm blows our ship of state around, we may be taking on a little water, but our enemies look like they may be headed to the bottom. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys. The price of gas at the pump has been cut in half since the summer. On Independence Day, we were paying more than $4.00 per gallon. Today, it is $1.99. That dramatic drop in less than 5 months has nearly destroyed the economies of Russia, Iran, and Venezuela, all of whom rely on petrol-dollars to survive. More . . .

MOSCOW (AFP) – Russian lawmakers gave final approval Friday to a bill extending presidential terms, after a speech on the economy by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin revived speculation over his political ambitions. The bill, which sailed through the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, would extend presidential terms from four to six years and would be the first change to Russia's post-Soviet constitution adopted in 1993. The reform was proposed little more than two weeks ago by President Dmitry Medvedev, who said it would strengthen political stability, and has since been rushed through parliament amid a spiralling economic crisis....

MOSCOW, November 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's foreign minister rejected on Wednesday media allegations that President Dmitry Medvedev's upcoming November tour of Latin American countries is aimed against the United States. Medvedev will take part in the November 22-23 APEC summit in Lima, and is expected to pay official visits to Brazil, as well as Venezuela and Cuba, whose leaderships strongly oppose U.S. influence in the region.

If President-elect Barack Obama and his top advisers learn nothing else from Russia's invasion and occupation of South Ossetia this summer it should be that Moscow aspires to be an energy superpower. Russia already is the world's second-largest producer of oil, pumping nearly 10 million barrels a day, and is the largest supplier of natural gas. Like all energy-exporting countries, Russia benefited enormously from the run-up in prices over the last decade. Every $1 increase in the price of a barrel of oil transferred about $1 billion into Russia's state budget. As a result, Russian foreign exchange reserves grew from...

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev`s statement on the Stalin-era famine provoked disappointment in Ukraine, the country`s ambassador to Russia said on Tuesday, RIA Novosti reported. In a letter to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko released by the Kremlin on Friday, the Russian president accused Kyiv of using the Stalin-era famine, known as the Holodomor, to drive a wedge between Ukraine and Russia, and urged efforts to forge a common position on the tragedy. In the letter, Medvedev said Ukraine`s attempts to declare the Holodomor an act of genocide by the Soviet authorities meant he could not attend commemoration events in Kyiv. "Of...

Polish President Lech Kaczynski arrived to Georgia to celebrate 5th anniversary of Georgia's Rose Revolution. When Polish president car was approaching Russian check point nearby brorder with Osetia presidential convoy got shot up. Shooting was directed from the side of Russian check point - presidential minister Michal Kaminski said. President Kaczynski wanted to visit refuge camp of Georgians who were forced to leave Osetia occupied by Russian Army. After the incident convoy was forced to return to Tbilisi.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday he believed US president-elect Barack Obama could change Washington's position over a hotly contested plan for a US missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. Asked if he saw a chance of a shift on the issue under Obama, Medvedev told reporters: "I think there are chances, because if the position of the current administration on this question looks extremely inflexible, the position of the president-elect looks more careful." Striking a positive note about relations with the next US administration, Medvedev referred to the Obama team's refusal so far to establish its position on...