The power of veto in the United Nations Security Council, which is held by Russia, Britain, China, the United States and France, is the cornerstone of the organization’s architecture, without which it will lose its stability, as stated by Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Vladimir Safronkov at the regular meeting of the General Assembly on the issue of Security Council reform.

The diplomat noted that “ungrounded actions against the right of veto” …

The Russian Su-30SM fighter aircraft that crashed after takeoff from Khmeimim airbase in Syria on May 4 had Khmeimim airbase in Syria on May 4 experienced an engine failure.  The newspaper Kommersant reports, citing a source of in the military command, that there was a sharp drop in power of one of the engines before the fighter crashed. The exact cause of the crash will be determined only after the flight recorders are recovered from the water.

According to the newspaper, the aircraft began …

The number of asylum applications by Russian citizens in the United States hit a 24-year high in 2017, jumping nearly 40 percent from the previous year, as reported by Radio Liberty. Applications have been increasing since the return of Vladimir Putin to power in Russia in 2012.

The US government received 2,664 new asylum applications from Russian nationals in fiscal year 2017 ending on September 30, which was a 39-percent increase compared to 2016. The 2017 figure is more than double the …