Politics

President Putin has issued a scathing attack on President Obama, accusing the U.S. leader of deliberately leading a ‘fake war’ against ISIS.  Russian commanders have confirmed that the U.S. is deliberately “fighting to lose” against ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front in Syria, whilst secretly propping them up in order to weaken and oust President Assad. Putin has warned that Russia are prepared to send special forces troops to the Levant War Zone as a result of the ‘fight to lose’ strategy employed by America.

The White House have formally asked Russia to leave al-Qaeda alone, fearing that Russian military forces could destroy the CIA-run terrorist organisation with their military might.  Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said that Washington pleaded with him in a private meeting to leave Al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front in Syria alone, citing fears that Russia “might accidentally hit civilians”. ABC News reports: Sergey Lavrov said that Russia has long insisted that the moderate, U.S.-backed opposition groups should leave the areas occupied by Nusra.

Turkish President Erdogan has issued an angry warning to Germany, saying that if they dare to recognise the Armenian genocide, Turkey will cut off diplomatic ties with the country.  Following the Berlin vote to officially recognise the mass-killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces in the First World War as an “act of genocide,” Erdogan hit back by delivering a furious televised speech in Turkey. Alaraby.co.uk reports: Turkey would never accept the charge that Ottoman troops were guilty of “genocide”, he said.

Assad’s military forces have entered the province of Raqqa in order to confront ISIS for the first time since 2014.  Syrian regime forces alongside Russian forces have entered Raqqa with the aim of eliminating ISIS’ Syrian headquarters and regaining control of the area. Speisa.com reports: On Saturday, Bashar al-Assad’s army entered into the province of Raqqa for the first time since IS conquered large areas of northern Syria in 2014, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) today.

While the US political and financial establishment has been firmly opposed to a Trump presidency, an unexpected supporter for the presumptive GOP candidate has emerged in Russia, where the head of the Russian Upper House Committee for Foreign Relations, Konstantin Kosachev, said that a victory for Donald Trump in the US presidential elections would provide the "shake up" Washington needs and could be the catalyst to reverse the rapidly deteriorating trend in US-Russian relations.