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Toll in Russia raids on Qaeda-run Syria jail rises to 81: monitor AFP 22 hours ago Beirut (AFP) - At least 81 people, including 23 Al-Qaeda fighters, were killed in Russian strikes on a prison complex run by the jihadist group in Syria's northwest, a monitor said Sunday in a new toll. The strikes on Saturday targeted an Al-Nusra Front building near a popular market in northwestern Idlib province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The complex in Maarat Al-Numan housed the group's religious court and a jail. The dead included 23 Al-Nusra fighters and six non-jihadist rebels...

<p>Putin is Israelis’ person of the year, according to a Panels Research poll taken for The Jerusalem Post and its Hebrew sister publication Ma’ariv Sof Hashavua.</p>

It didn't take long for western media to lose focus. After Russia began its military campaign to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the world largely stopped paying attention to Ukraine. It shouldn't have. Over the last few months, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been busy trying to deepen the quagmire he created in Eastern Europe. A United Nations' report released in November detailed the degree to which his proxy war in Ukraine has turned the country into Russia's killing field. More than 9,000 people have died since the spring of 2014 after Russia-backed rebels began fighting Kiev for independence,...

American lawmakers push bill to counter Putin message Russia has reorganized and intensified its international propaganda machine so effectively over the past decade that some Western lawmakers and diplomats say Washington now is badly losing a global messaging war to the increasingly modernized blitz of anti-U.S. content from Moscow-backed news operations. Leaders in the House and Senate have not put their full weight behind the Royce-Engel legislation, although it moved swiftly through the committee in May.

The Deputy of the lower chamber of the Polish Parliament — małgorzata Gosiewska published a report on "Russian war crimes in Eastern Ukraine in 2014." As reported by "Polish radio," the document, which the Deputy of the party "Law and Justice" prepared with the support of volunteers, described the actions of the Russian soldiers and Pro-Russian militants in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. In addition, the text refers to several events that took place in Crimea and in Russia, where were taken prisoners. The basis of the document laid more than 60 interviews that Polish experts held prisoners. In the...

Republican US presidential front-runner Donald Trump is apparently "honored" that Russian President Vladimir Putin considers the real-estate magnate a "flamboyant" and "very talented" man. "It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond," Trump said in a statement, according to Politico. He continued: "I have always felt that Russia and the United States should be able to work well with each other towards defeating terrorism and restoring world peace, not to mention trade and all of the other benefits derived from mutual respect." (full article at...

Vladimir Putin, as Western Journalism has reported, apparently has very little respect for President Obama, and doesn’t seem to consider his interests in Europe or the Middle East. When Russian troops amassed along the Ukrainian border, Putin didn’t stop at the border in response to Obama’s advice to withdraw troops. In fact, Putin sent troops inside Ukraine and took control of Crimea. Additionally, in Syria, just when President Obama was proclaiming that ISIS was contained and would be pursued inside Syria, Putin sent troops into Syria and reinforced the Asad regime, the very regime that Obama intended to overcome. At...

President Vladimir Putin has signed into law the bill allowing the Constitutional Court to overrule the decisions of international courts if such decisions contradict the principle of supremacy of the Russian Constitution. The new act published on the government website on Tuesday reads that the Constitutional Court will look into every decision of any intergovernmental body based on an international treaty and find if it matches the Russian Constitution and the rights and freedoms guaranteed by it. Upon such consideration the Constitutional Court can allow the decision to be executed in Russia, in full or in part, or ban its...

Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw on Tuesday the launch of the second line of Russia's power link to Crimea which will allow to double Russian power supplies to the peninsula to 400 megawatts. Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, was plunged into darkness around three weeks ago after electricity pylons in southern Ukraine that carry the four lines that supply Crimea with the bulk of its power were blown up by unidentified people.

Two protesters have died in the south-eastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir in a clash between police and Kurdish demonstrators over a curfew imposed as part of a security crackdown. Police fired tear gas and water cannon at protesters at a march called by the main pro-Kurdish party, the HDP. A number of areas in the south-east have been put under curfew as security forces battle Kurdish militants.

Moscow (AFP) - A Russian destroyer in the Aegean Sea on Sunday used small arms fire to prevent a collision with a Turkish vessel, Moscow said, adding it had summoned Ankara's military attache over the incident. "The crew of the Russian patrol ship Smetlivy which was located 22 kilometres (13.7 miles) from the Greek island of Lemnos in the northern part of the Aegean Sea avoided collision with a Turkish seiner," the defence ministry said, adding that the crew had fired small arms to warn the boat. At 0603 GMT the Russian warship, which was at anchor, spotted a Turkish...

Defenses on these machines can counter US-made TOW missiles The Fourth Division of the Syrian army has been equipped with at least 6 modern T-90MS Tagil tanks, provided by the Russian Federation. Their function is to help the Syrian Arab Army advance in the southern province of Aleppo. ... The T-90MS and its outstanding capability to destroy incoming TOW and M79 missiles appears to be perfect for a theater of war like the one in Syria. In 4 and a half years of conflict, more than 9,000 BGM-71E3B TOW and M79 anti-tank systems have been introduced in the country. Their...

Vladimir Putin's holy war by Robert Wargas posted Thursday, 10 Dec 2015 Some traditionalist websites praise Putin as the chief enemy of a Satanic new world order In St Petersburg, Vladimir Putin's home town, there is a bust depicting him as a Roman emperor. More revealing, however, are the icons which, apparently seriously, depict the Russian president as a saint. The Russian Orthodox Church sometimes treats him like one. Russian documentaries extol Putin as the man who resuscitated Russian spirituality. Kirill I, Patriarch of Moscow and head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has described his leadership as a"miracle from God"....

The Syrian Turkmen taking flight from Russian bombing By Nafiseh Kohnavard BBC Persian, on the Turkey-Syria border 4 December 2015 Since Russia began air strikes on the Turkmen mountains in north-west Syria last month, nearly 5,000 people from the country's ethnic Turkmen minority have fled their homes. Many have crossed the border into Turkey's Hatay province, their plight overshadowed by a diplomatic row between Turkey and Russia. Turkey has been open in offering support, with officials referring to the Turkmen brigades as "brothers" and insisting they are moderate. However reports suggest the brigades have close ties to the al-Qaeda-linked jihadist...

While there has been no further military engagement between Russia and Turkey since a Russian bomber was shot down by the Turkish Air Force last month, the war of words in the most volatile region of the Middle East continues to escalate. In a roundtable interview with reporters on Wednesday, a senior Turkish official accused Russia of conducting an “ethnic cleansing” campaign in the northern part of Syria. At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin was reminding the world in general, and Turkey in particular, that not only is Russia a nuclear power, but that the Kremlin has nuclear-capable...

ISIS is being controlled by Russian secret services says Hon. Ahmed Zakayev, Chairman of Government of Chechnya on Exile. Zakayev received asylum in Britain after escaping Putin's regime revenge.

Despite fraught relations between the two countries after a Russian pilot was killed last week, the Turkey's PM demanded communication channels be opened up to stop similar incidents from occurring. Ahmet Davuto?lu told a news conference: "Our call to Russia again is to open military communication channels to prevent similar incidents happening. Let's keep diplomatic channels open." His call for dialogue comes after the Kremlin closed an emergency phone line with Ankara in anger at the attack, which Russia claims happened over Syrian airspace.

President Barack Obama warned his Russian counterpart Tuesday against intervening in Syria's civil war, suggesting that Vladimir Putin is aware of the dangers his country faces by entering the bloody conflict. "I think Mr. Putin understands that ... with Afghanistan fresh in the memory, for him to simply get bogged down in an inconclusive and paralyzing civil conflict is not the outcome that he's looking for," Obama said at a news conference in Paris.

Russia is striking back after a "stab in the back by an accomplice to terrorists" by changing the "game" in Syria. Moscow's retaliation is not just about severing economic and diplomatic ties. It is pursuing a policy that could tie Turkey's hands in Syria. Ankara never received international backing for a safe zone across its border, but Russia has now ruled that out. The deployment of S-400 anti-air missiles means Russia has effectively imposed a no-fly zone over Syria. And now, Moscow seems to be moving closer to a group that has been the US-led coalition's main ground force in...

Russia released an extensive report this week tying Turkey's ruling family to the Islamic State. This comes after Turkey shot down a Russian plane over disputed region of Turkey and Syria. This report may also explain why Obama has allegedly been fighting the Islamic State for a year as they grow more powerful and larger. From the video: Yes, Russia is being opportunistic to release this information now after their jet was shot down. But, did Turkey (or the US) shoot down the Russian jet because it was interfering with oil shipments from the Islamic State to Turkey? The Kurdish...