The Syrian people will both draft the new constitution of their country and will adopt it on their own, as it is their sovereign right, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian upper house of parliament told Sputnik on Thursday.
The United Nations has condemned Israel’s plans of building more settlements on the West Bank. The international body said that these “unilateral actions” were posing an obstacle to the two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sputnik spoke with Issa Amro, Palestinian human rights defender and co-founder of Youth Against Settlements.
The number of people leaving Russia’s Chechen Republic to join the ranks of Daesh terrorist group in Syria has decreased in 2016, First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Chechnya Apti Alaudinov said on Thursday.
The budget of the NATO Security Investment Programme for Poland this year will be three times as much as in 2016, a source in the Polish Defense Ministry told the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita on Thursday.
Watch (and listen!) Vladimir Putin singing along to a song about space exploration together with Russian students.
Moscow is ready to resume dialogue with London, Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov told Sputnik.
Former leader of the Austrian Green Alternative party (the Greens) Alexander Van der Bellen officially took office as the 9th Austrian President on Thursday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday he saw good prospects of the Syrian settlement after the recent talks in Astana.
Qatari partners are exhibiting interest in expanding their investment activity in Russia, within the partnership over Rosneft privatization transaction as well, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.
London sent its Type 23 frigate HMS St Albans and RAF Typhoon aircraft to escort the Russian aircraft carrier group as the ships sailed close to the UK territorial waters on their way back to their homeport of Severomorsk to divert attention away from the Royal Navy's troubles, journalist Alexander Khrolenko wrote for RIA Novosti.
The Kremlin would like to refrain from becoming a party of discussion on wearing hijabs at schools, which is currently ongoing in the country, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.
Mired in Brexit uncertainty, the UK economy still performed fairly well in 2016, but the expectations for this year are quite modest, as there is just one potential driver for a more sustainable GDP expansion – the re-emerging British manufacturing.
Support for a preemptive strike against North Korea has risen among South Koreans from 36.6 percent in 2013 to 43.2 percent, a poll revealed on Thursday.
In Finland, whose poetic moniker is 'Land of a Thousand Lakes,' nature reserves are plentiful. It is therefore not surprising that Finns are celebrated nature-lovers. What is surprising, though, is that Finns are queuing to become shepherds with no salary, having to pay themselves for the sheer pleasure of feeding animals in protected areas.
On this week's Level Talk, I talk to Laurie Calhoun, the author of the book: "We Kill Because We Can: From Soldering to Assassination in the Drone Age", about the scale, scope and consequences of the drone program. Also joining me is Professor David Stupples, Director of Electronic Warfare Systems Research, of the City University of London.
The Russian National Guard service's website has come under a large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, the National Guard said Thursday.
The accusations against French presidential hopeful Emmanuel Macron brought up by rightist media and caught up by some French lawmakers, alleging that he misused money of the Economy and Finance Ministry at the time he headed the government institution, are defamatory in their nature, Macron's En Marche! movement said on Thursday.
Russia is in favor of a unitary and secular Syria, but the fate of the country is up the Syrian people, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Thursday commenting on Moscow's draft of the Syrian constitution.
On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker is joined by former CIA analyst and political activist Ray McGovern.
Syrian opposition deliberately refused to examine the proposals on constitutional change presented by the Russian delegation, adviser to the opposition delegation in Astana Yahya Aridi told Sputnik Thursday.
A Syrian parliamentary delegation led by speaker Hadiya Abbas will visit Moscow in April, Assistant Secretary General of the People's Assembly Ghazi Abbas told Sputnik on Thursday.
A team of NATO experts is in Kiev for consultations on Ukraine’s participation in the Alliance forces’ planning and assessment. Sputnik asked Oskar Krejčí, a professor of international public relations in Prague, about Ukraine’s chances of joining the Western defense alliance.
The date of a first phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and new US President Donald Trump has not yet been determined, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.
Trump passes more Executive Orders in the face of mass resistance efforts growing; the legal efforts to fight back.
Syrian rebel factions have joined ranks with Ahrar al-Sham militant group, a statement said.