WORLD

Ukraine’s ambassador to Qatar, Andrii Kuzmenko, suggested that the Russian Football Union (RFU) should be excluded as a member of FIFA during the global football governing body’s recent congress in Doha.  Kuzmenko attended the event held in the Qatari capital on Thursday, and was quoted by Australian TV channel ABC …

Western officials are uncertain that their governments will agree to give Ukraine legally binding security guarantees similar to NATO’s Article 5, sources told CNN. The US and its allies are not likely to do what Kiev wants them to, the news network reported on Friday. Ukraine has agreed to renounce …

The Russian Foreign Ministry has called on the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Secretariat “to immediately launch measures for winding down” its Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine. Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a lengthy statement on Friday that “in the current political and legal realities,” the …

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says there are countries which will not be able to substitute Russian gas with the more expensive American alternative. Speaking to local radio station Kossuth on Friday, the Hungarian PM said Russian gas is his country’s only option, as Hungary is landlocked and won’t be …

French biathlon coach Simon Fourcade has said it is “counterproductive” to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competition, explaining why he made a gesture of support at the Junior World Championships in America. A member of the Russian team, Yuri Batmanov explained this week how Fourcade had glued a …

Moscow wants security guarantees for all European nations, not just Ukraine and Russia, the country’s foreign minister told journalists on Friday. During peace talks with Russia, Kiev has confirmed it is prepared to become a non-aligned country in exchange for legally binding security guarantees. Following talks with his Indian counterpart, …

Amid Western sanctions, Russia might stop selling and buying food from “unfriendly countries,” former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has revealed. Medvedev, who is currently the deputy chair of the country’s Security Council, published a list of suggestions related to Russia’s food security and exports on Telegram on Friday. The post …

Austria is unable to stop buying Russian natural gas this year, the head of energy giant OMV, Alfred Stern, said in response to calls for European states to place an embargo on Russian supplies. “Embargo on Russian gas is impossible if we are not ready to accept the dire consequences. …

China believes NATO should have been dissolved after the USSR, which it was created to contain, no longer existed, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said. Instead, it expanded and cornered Russia, triggering bloodshed in Ukraine, Zhao said. “As a product of the Cold War, NATO should have become history …

As part of their unprecedented economic sanctions against Russia, the US and its allies announced last week they were moving to block financial transactions with Russia’s Central Bank (CBR) that involve gold, aiming to further restrict the country’s ability to use its international reserves. RT talked to Sergey Kopylov, a …