
The first face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will take place on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hamburg. The Kremlin says terrorism; Syria and Ukraine will top its agenda.

President Michel Temer of Brazil is to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during his Moscow stop this coming week. Among the items to be discussed is the purchase of air defense missile systems. There will also be talks with Russian investors to discuss energy matters.

A majority of US citizens including a growing number of Republicans, want to see an “independent investigation” sort out any connections between Russia and President Donald Trump during the 2016 election campaign, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Monday.

Venezuela's state-run oil company, PDVSA, sent a tanker in October to the Caribbean with the expectation that its cargo of crude would fetch about US$20 million - money the crisis-stricken nation desperately needs. Instead, the owner of the tanker, the Russian state-owned shipping conglomerate Sovcomflot, held the oil in hopes of collecting partial payment on US$30 million that it says PDVSA owes for unpaid shipping fees.

Russia, Syria and Iran have warned the United States against launching new strikes on Syria and called for an international investigation into the chemical weapons attack in Syria.

The display of force by the US military with the MOAB type of ordnance has been impressive but such type of weapon is not exclusive of the US arsenal: Russia has a device four times more powerful than the US' monster bomb. The Russian version, called the Father Of All Bombs, weighs just 15,560lbs and is packed with the equivalent to 44 tons of explosive TNT.

Britain said on Sunday Russia bore responsibility by proxy for civilian deaths in Syria last week caused by a poison gas attack that Washington says was carried out by the Moscow-backed government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. At least 70 people died in what the United States says was a chemical weapons attack in rebel-held Syria.

The Russian Investigative Committee has identified 22-year-old Akbarzhon Dzhalilov, a Kyrgyz-born Russian citizen, as the suspect believed to have carried out the terrorist bombing in the Saint Petersburg Metro.

Uruguayan president Tabare Vazquez, six cabinet ministers and a numerous business delegation begin on Monday a two weeks official tour of Germany, Finland and Russia to increase political and trade links, particularly in the “new international scenario” and hopefully advancing in locking the long delayed accord between the European Union and Mercosur.

Russia’s ambassador to the UN has suggested that Britain should “clean its conscience” by “giving back” the Falklands/Malvinas and Gibraltar before it passes judgment on the Kremlin’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.