Russia

While few predicted the stock market surge should Trump get elected, virtually everyone anticipated a thawing of relations between Russia and the US if Donald Trump were to occupy the White House. And yet, 5 months later, the opposite has happened: stocks are just shy of the record 2,400 while relations between the Kremlin and the White House, despite all the rhetoric of Trump being an extended KGB agent or whatever the NYT/WaPo unsubstantiated narrative of the day is, have remained abysmal with no hope of improvement in sight.

In a dramatic development involving Mike Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser who resigned just a few weeks into his tenure over allegations surrounding his Russian connections, the WSJ reports that he has told the FBI and congressional officials investigating the Trump campaign’s potential ties to Russia that he is willing to testify and be interviewed in exchange for immunity from prosecution, "according to officials with knowledge of the matter."

Authored by Peter Korzun via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

The significance of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Russia on March 27-28 goes far beyond the bilateral relationship. Iran is one of the main actors in Syria and Iraq. It has an importance place in the geopolitical plans of US President Donald Trump. Its relationship with Russia is an important factor of international politics. The future of the entire Middle East depends to a great extent on what Russia and Iran do and how effectively they coordinate their activities.

The narrative of the "Russian hacking" of the US elections has been thrown for a loop following a report the Obama administration blocked FBI Director James Comey’s attempts to go public as early as the summer of 2016 with information on Russia’s alleged campaign to influence the U.S. presidential election, Newsweek reports citing two unidentified sources with knowledge of the matter. 

Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

The European Court of Justice, Europe’s top court, on Tuesday ruled that sanctions imposed by the UK and the EU on Russia’s oil giant Rosneft are valid, in a ruling that also asserts the court’s jurisdiction over the common policy of the European Union (EU).

The EU imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014 over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, with economic sanctions slapped in July 2014 and reinforced in September 2014, including against certain Russian companies that include Rosneft.