Russian President Putin received a report from Russian Defence Minister Shoigu yesterday during a meeting of Russia’s Security Council concerning the claims that a Russian air strike might have killed the ISIS leader Ibrahim Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
The report of the meeting on the Kremlin’s website is careful not to repeat this claim or even to mention Al-Baghdadi’s name
The US Senate – as universally predicted – has approved by a 97-2 margin further sanctions against Russia, codifying sanctions previously imposed by US President Obama into law.
The supposed purpose of these sanctions is to “punish” Russia for its alleged interference in last year’s US elections.
A week into the crisis Saudi Arabia instigated when it broke diplomatic relations with Qatar and imposed a land and air blockade of the tiny Gulf state, it is becoming clear that it is failing to bring Qatar to heel.
Facing an orchestrated attempt by various Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia to isolate it, the Kingdom of Qatar has looked for help to Russia.
Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani has telephoned Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov in what is clearly a call for help. Here is how TASS, Russia’s official news agency, reports the call
The parties paid special attention to the rising tensions between Qatar and some other Arab countries,” the statement reads.
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (“SPIEF”) which Russia holds every year in early summer in St.Petersburg invariably highlights Russia’s relations with one particular country. This year that country was India.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended SPIEF at the head of a strong Indian delegation. He had a bilateral meeting with Russian President Putin, and together with Putin attended SPIEF’s plenary session.
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017 opened on June 1, 2017 under the slogan ‘Achieving a New Balance in the Global Economic Arena’.
The key themes of the Forum were: ‘Made in Russia: Creating a National Brand’, ‘Injecting Dynamism in the Russian Far East Economy’, ‘Destination Russia – Shifting Trends Towards Domestic and Incoming Tourism’, ‘Globalization Revisited: Is Every Country on Its Own Now?’, ‘The Development of the Legal Audio and Video Content Market’, ‘The Changing Economics of Transportation and Logistics’
Economy
Following swiftly upon Donald Trump’s unhappy NATO and G7 summits in Europe, and Angela Merkel’s incendiary comment that Europe can no longer look to the US for protection, comes Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Change Treaty.
As my colleague Adam Garrie has pointed out, The New York Times story that Russian President Putin has ‘suggested’ that patriotic Russian hackers might have hacked Podesta and the DNC is mendacious and wrong.
Russia has reacted strongly to Moldova’s decision to expel 5 Russian diplomats, retaliating by expelling 3 Moldovan diplomats in reply.
The underlying story behind these tit-for-tat expulsions is the deepening political crisis in Moldova, which is bitterly divided between pro-Russian and pro-EU factions.
The Kremlin has published the complete text of the brief but highly illuminating press conference which followed the Macron-Putin summit in Versailles.
