Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said Monday that Israeli leaders bring "war and occupation" thus blocking peace talks on the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon.

Mashaal spoke after a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Msocow.

His statement leaves in doubt Russia's desire to host a Mideast peace conference and to involve Hamas, despite strong opposition from Israel and the US.

The Russian Foreign Ministry issued no information about Monday's meeting between Mashaal and Lavrov. Moscow hopes to host a Middle East peace conference but has not yet set a date.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Moscow to persuade the Kremlin into backing tougher sanctions against Iran, days after media reports revealed that Tel Aviv has dispatched two warships to the Persian Gulf.

The three-day trip, planned weeks ago, will see Netanyahu making every effort in convincing Russian government officials to join the Western-led campaign for additional sanctions against Iran's enrichment activities.

President Dmitry Medvedev has signed country’s new military doctrine which allows preventive nuclear strikes against potential aggressors.

'The President informed the members of Russia's Security Council yesterday that he has approved two documents - the military doctrine and the Fundamentals of the state policy on nuclear deterrence until 2020,'' presidential press secretary Natalia Timakova said.

The Iranian ambassador in Moscow says Russia has assured Iran that it still intends to deliver long-range air-defense missiles.

Russian news agencies cite Seyyed Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi as saying on Thursday “our Russian colleagues have assured us that they will meet their obligations.”

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Friday signed a new version of its main military strategy document which named NATO expansion as one of the chief threats to the country's security.

U.S. plans to place elements of its global missile shield in Romania pose a real threat to Russia's national security, a Russian military analyst said on Friday.

Romanian President Traian Basescu said on Thursday his country was ready to host U.S. medium-range interceptor missiles to counter a potential ballistic missile attack, but stressed that they would not be directed at Russia.

It's good to see that US officials and former officials continue acting to par, God forbid they actually shock us and change their stripes. The latest tripe out of the mouths of the mega corrupted and their hand picked puppets is Henry Paulson's tripe about Russia trying to collapse the US economic bubble and that being the reason that the US is now down on its luck.

Iran's ambassador to Russia says Moscow has guaranteed that it will deliver the S-300 missile defense system to Iran.

"Iran is ready to receive this system and our Russian colleagues have assured us that they will meet their obligations," Ambassador Seyyed Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi said at a press conference at the main office of RIA Novosti in Moscow on Thursday.

Russia urged China to dump its Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds in 2008 in a bid to force a bailout of the largest U.S. mortgage-finance companies, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said.

Paulson learned of the “disruptive scheme” while attending the Beijing Summer Olympics, according to his memoir, “On The Brink.”

Persistent U.S. and NATO military moves are threatening to turn the Baltic Sea region into a powder keg that another hostile encounter between Western and Russian military aircraft could ignite at any time.

As to government officials and the news media in Russia, a year is a sufficiently long period of time to awaken from the illusion of an imaginative rest button that will reverse a decade of NATO penetration of the Baltic Sea and the consolidation of military infrastructure there aimed squarely - and exclusively - at their own nation.

Obama last night made clear what the missile shield in Eastern Europe is really about. While the Bush administration claimed that the missile shield was about dealing with a threat from Iran, Obama has made it clear that it is about a threat from Russia, or at least a perceived threat. Having scrapped the plan for a missile shield in Eastern Europe last September, it is now back on the table with missiles set to be deployed in Poland as early as March or April of this year. The missiles will be within 35 miles of the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, which makes clear that this is geographically about dealing with a perceived Russian threat to Eastern Europe, rather than an Iranian threat to the West. This is not about Iran, this is about Russia, and the Cold War lives on.

Poland is giving the impression that it is strengthening its defences directly against Russia, says Moscow's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.

The comment comes after reports this week that Poland is to situate US Patriot missiles 100 kilometers from the border with Kaliningrad, Russia. The Kremlin is seeking full information on the announcement, said the Russian foreign minister.

But this month has brought even more dramatic and dangerous news. The Pentagon has authorized the completion of a $6.5 billion arms deal with Taiwan with an agreement to deliver 200 Patriot Advanced Capability anti-ballistic missiles. The People’s Republic of China is infuriated, as Washington would be if the situation were reversed and Beijing provided a comparable arsenal of weapons to, for example, an independent Puerto Rico.

US Troops, Missiles to Be Just 35 Miles From Russian Frontier

DREAMS of travelling from London to New York by train were evoked last night after one of Russia’s most powerful men pledged a crucial tunnel linking his country to North America would be “feasible” within 10 years.

The Russian Prime Minister argued that the construction by Washington of an “umbrella” against “offensive strike systems” – a reference to Russia’s strategic deterrent – would break the nuclear balance the two superpowers with the result that the Americans “will do whatever they want and grow more aggressive”.

As a result, Mr Putin issued a belligerent caveat to the US: “In order to preserve a balance, while we aren’t planning to build a missile defence of our own, as it’s very expensive and its efficiency is not quite clear, we have to develop offensive strike systems.”

Asked by a journalist just before the new year what the biggest problem was in replacing the old START treaty, Russian Prime Minister Putin said: "What is the problem? The problem is that our American partners are building an anti-missile shield and we are not building one." "The problems of missile defence and offensive arms are very closely linked. By building such an umbrella over themselves our partners," Putin said, with his trademark sarcasm, referring to the US, "could feel themselves fully secure and will do whatever they want, which upsets the balance."

Senior Ukrainian and Russian diplomats were on the phone Thursday to ease tensions after Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov told Reuters that Russia must “attack” Ukraine and Georgia for their pro-Western foreign policy course.

"...Georgia, South Ossetia, Ukraine, all this will go on and on. It's Russia's private affliction,” Kadyrov said. “Why should we always suffer if we can eradicate this for good? We are a great power, we have everything - an army, technology. We need to attack."

The comment, also reported by The Daily Telegraph, sparked an international reaction as it comes 17 months after Russia invaded Georgia, sending jets, tanks and thousands of troops there.

Israel, as usual, will get the bulk of this 'excess' military equipment. But notice that a large majority of the rest are nations that border Russia?

A kind-hearted farm boy is how villagers recall suspected Nazi-era war criminal John Demjanjuk in his native Ukraine where his trial has provoked outrage among those who knew him.

Differences between the Israeli and the Palestinians are too sharp to be settled by the two parties without "serious pressure" from the international community, a Russian political analyst said on Tuesday.

Georgy Mirsky from the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of World Economy and International Relations said strict measures should be applied toward Israel as all efforts taken so far by the international community to overcome the deadlock in Israeli-Palestinian relations have proven useless.

"The Israelis will do nothing themselves. Serious pressure is needed," the expert said, adding a "stick" should be applied toward Israel because the "carrot" approach has run its course.

Russia on Thursday accused the United States of slowing down talks on a new nuclear weapons disarmament treaty, after officials admitted the two sides could no longer sign the accord this year.

The upper house of the Russian parliament on Wednesday approved a bill allowing the use of Russian military forces in foreign countries, including pre-emptive strikes.

Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is seeking greater Russian assistance for the war in Afghanistan, on his first official trip to Moscow.

The Haaretz newspaper said on Friday that Moscow refused an American overture calling on the international quartet to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and give it the right to annex the major settlement outposts in the West Bank to its borders.

The accident occurred when the restaurant was packed with people, mostly its employees and their families, who were partying to celebrate the highly popular nightclub's 10th anniversary, ITAR-TASS reported quoting local police.

"The accident was due to a violation of instructions when launching fireworks," Markin said.

Furthermore, while Russia does not want to see a military confrontation between the United States (or Israel) and Iran, Moscow also does not want to see an overly rapid rapprochement between the United States (or Europe) and Iran. Among other considerations, Russian policymakers and the leadership of Gazprom are keen to prevent head-to-head competition between Russian and Iranian gas, especially in Europe.

Military intelligence believes that Georgia might again attack South Ossetia, the pro-Moscow region over which the two countries fought a war last year, a powerful spy chief said Thursday.

Alexander Shlyakhturov, who in April took over command of the military’s Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, said the situation was strained and accused NATO countries of continuing to supply arms to Georgia.

Russia may decide to use military forces abroad only in exceptional circumstances to protect its citizens, said President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday.

Russia's State Duma, the lower house, in late October voted unanimously to pass a bill which the Kremlin said would lay the legal foundation for using troops abroad to prevent aggression by other states and to protect Russian citizens on foreign soil.

Iran has not rejected an offer to enrich its uranium in Russia, and is preparing an official response to the proposals of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Russia’s Foreign Minister.

Polyus Gold (PLZL.MM) (PLZLq.L) plans to launch what will be Russia's largest gold mine, the $2.5 billion Natalka project, in 2012 or 2013, the company's chief executive said in a statement on Tuesday.

Polyus, which mines nearly a quarter of Russia's gold, expects the Natalka mine in the country's remote northeast to produce over 1.3 million ounces a year of the precious metal -- more than the company's entire forecast production for 2007.

Secretary of Russia's National Security Council Nikolai Patrushev says the country should be ready for "large-scale conflicts".

Patrushev made the comments while discussing a new version of Russia's military doctrine, which officials have been drafting in recent months.

Russia on Thursday said it would continue military cooperation with Iran amid widespread unease in the West over Moscow's controversial contract to sell advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Tehran.

Russia is highlighted as the country that bears the brunt of the ill-effects of the Afghan drug trade by a UN Office on Drugs and Crime report. The BBC's Stephen Eke reports on Moscow's growing concern about the problem.

Israel relayed a sharply worded protest to the Russian government following Russia's vote in favor of adopting the Goldstone report at the Human Rights Council in Geneva Friday, according to senior Foreign Ministry officials in Jerusalem.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman suffered a personal blow by the Russian vote, which went against the promises he received from his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, days prior to the vote at the United Nations body.

Russian officials clarified that Moscow would oppose any discussion of the Goldstone report by the UN Security Council, Israel Radio reported on Sunday night.

President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia issued a letter in August demanding policy reversals from a new Ukrainian government, including an end to its bid to join NATO. He also introduced a bill authorizing the use of troops to protect Russian citizens and Russian speakers abroad, a measure that some interpreted as targeting Crimea.

Russia is weighing changes to its military doctrine that would allow for a “preventive” nuclear strike against its enemies — even those armed only with conventional weapons. The news comes just as American diplomats are trying to get Russia to cut down its nuclear stockpile, and put the squeeze on Iran’s suspect nuclear program.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrapped up a European tour Wednesday by calling on Russia to uphold human rights...

People no longer trust Congress, the President, the courts, the media, corporations, political parties, and other institutions of society. People even doubt science and medicine.

According to the secretary if the Russian Security Council, the Russian government’s new review of its nuclear weapons policy retains and even expands the nation’s long-standing option to pre-emptively use nuclear weapons in warfare.

“Different variants are considered to allow the use of nuclear weapons depending on a certain situation and intentions of a would-be enemy,” the secretary insisted. Russia has insisted that it has the right to launch pre-emptive nuclear strikes since early 2008.

Russia pushed back Tuesday at U.S. efforts to threaten tough new sanctions if Iran fails to prove its nuclear program is peaceful, a setback to the Obama administration's desire to present a united front with Moscow.

So RT covered the mass protests in Georgia that preceded by a year the Russian invasion of 2008. "There were tens of thousands of people gathered around the parliament. They were roughly dispersed with tear gas, rubber bullets and sound machines." She says the story was at that stage ignored by other global broadcasters.

Last month, a group of east European leaders and intellectuals gathered in the Livadia Palace, where Britain, the US and the Soviet Union held the Yalta conference in February 1945. The idea was to discuss Ukraine's strategic future. But the discussion was overshadowed by one question: will there be a war between Russia and Ukraine?

On maps, Crimea is Ukrainian territory, and this naval citadel on its southern coast is a Ukrainian city. But when court bailiffs tried to serve papers at a lighthouse here in August, they suddenly found themselves surrounded by armed troops from Russia's Black Sea Fleet who delivered them to police as if they were trespassing teenagers.

Once again the simmering political cauldron in the disputed regions appear to be boiling up with Russia’s announcement this week that they are to escort freighters en route to Abkhazia, the Georgian breakaway state.

Russia may dispatch its navy ships to protect commercial vessels bound for a Russia-aligned separatist region in Georgia on the Black Sea, the Russian foreign minister said Friday.

Sergey Lavrov says the escort in neutral waters of the Black Sea might be needed to protect shipping from Georgian "provocations." He spoke Friday on a visit to Sukhumi, the capital of the separatist region of Abkhazia.

His statement about dispatching the navy ships to neutral waters marked a step beyond earlier Russian pledges to protect shipping in waters off Abkhazia's coast.

Competition for resources in the Arctic Circle could provoke conflict between Russia and Nato, a newly appointed commander at the alliance warned yesterday.

Russia has recently been aggressive in its pursuit of claims to parts of the region and in February sent a submarine to the floor of the sea symbolically to plant a Russian flag. Admiral James Stavridis said that military activity and trade routes would also be potential sources of competition around the polar cap.

Georgia's attack on its breakaway South Ossetia region marked the start of last year's war with Russia, which retaliated with excessive force, an EU-commissioned report said Wednesday.

The report on the five-day war in August 2008 lay blame on both sides, but cited Georgia as starting the conflict with its night shelling in South Ossetia — an act it said was not justifiable under international law.

?he United States and Russia are in a race for control over energy resources, and all the processes in the South Caucasus should be considered in this context, Andranik Tevanyan, Director of the Political Economy center, told NEWS.am, commenting on the information on Pentagon’s plans to deploy military bases in Georgia by 2015.

According to him, the United States is trying to resolve all the problems in the South Caucasus at one time thereby ensuring its hegemony over the region and making one more step toward greatly desired energy resources. Tevanyan stressed that the military bases will not be aimed against any country – they are just supposed to enable Washington “to draw nearer” to the energy resources of Central Asia and Azerbaijan.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has assured Iran that it will not be left out at any decisions to be made on the status of the Caspian Sea.

In a letter to his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki, Lavrov reiterated that Iran will be part of any decision makings on the issues pertaining to the Caspian Sea, IRNA reported on Friday.

If US congressmen approve the plan and Georgian officials support it, by 2015 there will be 25,000 American military officers in Georgia. As for the military bases, the US will build two land bases and one navy base on the territory of Georgia. The same number of bases Russia is building in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

There were no official comments either from Washington or from Tbilisi. Analysts believe that the issue with American bases in Georgia is connected with harsh comments from US State Secretary Hilary Clinton.

On September 21 (after the meeting with Mikhail Saakashvili) she said that the United States was not going to recognize independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Washington will do everything to prevent the world from recognizing these republics.

Medvedev stated shortly before the visit to the United States that Mr. Obama’s decision was obviously a positive sign. The Russian president added that Russia would listen to the USA once the USA listened to Russia. At the same time, Medvedev said that Russia would not be making primitive compromises. He emphasized that the missile defense system must be created though international, not individual effort.

Needless to say that the United States is not ready for it. Moreover, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said September 20 that Obama’s decision was not a concession that the USA had made to Russia.

What is Saakashvili up to? He seems intent on provoking a new crisis to force NATO to stand with him and bring the United States in on his side – against Russia. Ultimate goal: Return the issue of his lost provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia back onto the world’s front burner.

Prominent Europeans warned Tuesday against a new Berlin Wall going up in Georgia with the "de facto annexation" of two provinces by Russia, in a guest column printed in four newspapers.

The letter by signatories including former Czech president Vaclav Havel, European deputy Daniel Cohn-Bendit and French writers Andre Glucksmann and Bernard-Henri Levy said Europe's integrity was at stake in Georgia.

Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said the start of Russian coast guard patrols in the Black Sea off the separatist Georgian region of Abkhazia shows that Russia’s aim in a 2008 war was to boost its military presence in the area.

The Russian coast guard vessel Novorossiisk began patrolling off Abkhazia, Russian state television reported today, adding that the ship is one of as many of 10 that will be deployed in Abkhaz waters.

Washington is eager for Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization, and promised Monday to offer "constructive support" toward that end, US trade representative Ron Kirk said.

Kirk's comments came after he met with Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov in Washington for talks on a range of bilateral and multilateral trade issues.