Russia and China expect to use the ruble and yuan in payments for gas supplied using the western Altay pipeline. When it and the eastern Power of Siberia pipeline is open Beijing will become the biggest consumer of Russian gas.

"As a sales contract is not signed, then, of course, the currency of payment has not yet been determined. However, the Chinese side and the Russian side are discussing [currency-Ed.] today and are in intricate negotiations on the possibility of paying in yuan and rubles,"Gazprom Export CEO Elena Burmistrova said Tuesday.

Gazprom says it's not going to disclose the pricing formula for gas supplied to China via the western route because negotiations are underway, and pricing is a commercial secret, she added.

The western Altay route is expected to supply 30 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas a year to China. A basic agreement on the supply was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on May 8.

Agribusiness giant Monsanto - best known for their genetically modified soybeans and "probably carcinogenic" herbicide - has supplied the US government with white phosphorous used in incendiary weapons for at least 20 years, and some of that made its way to Israel for use in Operation Cast Lead.

The blog Current Events Inquiry dug into some heavily redacted documents posted in 2012 on the US Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website, to discover that Monsanto was the purveyor of white phosphorous to the US, and subsequently Israel, including during Operation Cast Lead, which resulted in heavy casualties among Palestinians in Gaza in 2008 and 2009.

The "Justification & Approval" document describes the solicitation of 180,000 pounds of white phosphorous (WP), and gives insight into the history of US procurement of the chemical.

"The Government is aware of only one source, Monsanto, who currently manufactures WP in the US," the document states, explaining that a company that produces such a chemical should be granted special protections under emergency conditions.

Representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) have yet to present evidence of alleged Russian involvement in the conflict in Ukraine to the Ukraine supporter in the US Senate, Senator John McCain told Sputnik on Tuesday.

"No, I have not met with them yet," McCain said responding to reports that the SBU representatives delivered evidence of Russian engagement in Ukraine to US lawmakers this week.

McCain serves as the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and has repeatedly called for the US provision of defensive arms to bolster Ukraine's security.

On Monday, Senior SBU Advisor Markiyan Lubkivskiy wrote on Facebook that evidence of alleged Russian involvement in Ukraine gathered by the Ukrainian military has been delivered to US lawmakers.

McCain said that he does not know whether or not the evidence had been delivered to US lawmakers, but added he has "no doubt about" Ukrainian allegations against Russia.

Moscow has repeatedly denied claims that it is engaged in the internal affairs of Ukraine, and has played an active role in a series of attempted peace negotiations to end the conflict.

No apologies for returning today to the strange case of the "moderate" Jabhat al-Nusra rebels, the throat-cutters and executioners who are playing the anti-Isis card to woo the US.

Their leader, you may recall, told Qatar's Al Jazeera channel that his al-Qaeda affiliated warriors will oppose both Isis and Bashar al-Assad - and even protect Syria's Christian and Alawite minorities. The usual American nomenklatura are telling the world this is tosh. It's the "conspiracy theorists" who are to blame, they say, for suggesting that the US might send barrel-loads of new weapons to such men. No. The US would never deal with those who are on its infamous, though pointless, "terrorist list". Besides, Qatar would never promote these killers as moderates - would they?

Well, first, let's take another look at all these conspiracy theorists. By chance, that inestimable French journal Le Monde Diplomatique this month carries a wodge of articles under the title "Did you say conspiracy?", painfully dissecting how many false-flag stories turned out to be true. There's the Mukden incident, for example, a 1931 Chinese attack on imperial Japan which turned out to be a Japanese attack on China and led to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the Rape of Nanking, et al.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that his country is not threatening NATO, according to Jeffrey Sommers, an associate professor of political economy and public policy at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Russia does not pose a threat to NATO countries, as was clarified by the country's President Vladimir Putin, Jeffrey Sommers, associate professor of political economy and public policy at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said in an interview with RT.

"I don't think Russia is a threat to NATO at all, and that's what needs to be recognized," Sommers said.

"Vladimir Putin has been very, very careful to assure the West that this is not a reprise of Soviet expansionism that we see on the part of Russia's military buildup, which from its perspective is to protect its interest, and to protect itself against what it sees as a reprise of the always contingent nature of history," he added.

According to him, the possible deployment of about 5,000 NATO troops in Eastern Europe does not represent a threat to Russia.

You can ignore all the talk of a "Grexit," the bluff and bluster of right-wing German ideologues such as Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble who would celebrate it, and repetitive, stubbornly dire warnings that time is running out. Did you notice that the much-hyped June 5 deadline for the Greece's payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) came and went, Greece didn't pay and nobody fell off a cliff? Trust me, this is not a cliffhanger.

Although there have been numerous references to game theory in the ongoing commentary, it's really not necessary if you look at the revealed preferences of those whom the Syriza government is polite and diplomatic enough to call its European partners. Take partner-in-chief German Chancellor Angela Merkel: If there's one thing she doesn't want to be remembered as, it's the politician who destroyed the eurozone.

Of course, we don't know if a Greek exit would do that, but there's a chance that it could. Even if the European Central Bank would be able to contain the resulting financial crisis, it is possible that Greece would, after an initial shock, ultimately do much better outside the euro, which might convince others to want to leave. Whatever the probability of that scenario, Merkel is, like most successful politicians, a risk-averse creature who won't roll those dice.

And there is an elephant in the room that she is not going to ignore: the United States. There are scattered press reports that Barack Obama's administration has put pressure on Merkel to reach an agreement with Greece, but the importance of that has been vastly understated. Unless it is a request that could get a German government voted out of office — such as George W. Bush's bid for support of his invasion of Iraq in 2003 — something that is strategically important to Washington is extremely likely to find agreement in Berlin. And in this case, Merkel and Obama are basically on the same page.

Greece does not support sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union, the Greek government special adviser for BRICS affairs told Sputnik Wednesday, adding that Athens is in favor of normalizing EU-Moscow relations.

"Our government has a clear position on that: it is against sanctions," Panagiotis Roumeliotis said. "We should try to work on the European level to overcome the difficulties and the political and economic problems in order to establish and enhance relations with Russia."

He pointed out that on a one-on-one level, EU countries have good relations with Russia.

"We are trying to understand better how we can enhance cooperation with Russia, respecting the interests of more sides," Roumeliotis emphasized.

Over 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles will be delivered to Russia's strategic forces in 2015, President Vladimir Putin announced at the opening ceremony of the Army-2015 Expo, an international military forum held near Moscow.

"This year, our nuclear forces are going to get more than 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of penetrating all existing, even the most advanced missile defenses," the Russian president said, adding that the state would persist in paying specific attention to realization of a massive military rearmament program and modernization of the defense industry, Putin said.

Vladimir Putin also said that tests of a new radar station capable of beyond-the-horizon aerial target detection will start soon in Russia. The system will be directed westward. A similar radar station is also due to be deployed eastward. And in April a new radar station started operations in the city of Armavir, in southern Russia.

There will be no additions to the European Union's sanctions against Russia, but they will be extended, a source told RIA Novosti.

The EU's Committee of Permanent Representatives has agreed to prolong economic sanctions against Russia till January 2016. The formal decision is to be made in Luxembourg on Monday.

"The same sanctions have been extended, only an extension for another six months, until the end of January 2016," an EU source familiar with the EU leadership told RIA Novosti.

It's the oldest trick in the book—when Dad tells you no, ask Mom if you can do it. Now President Barack Obama is playing that game with the surveillance of Americans' phone records.

The Obama administration, on the same day the USA Freedom Act became law on June 2, went to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA court) with a request (pdf) to continue sweeping up phone records during a six-month "transition" period before the Freedom Act provisions take effect.

The USA Freedom Act specifies that call records be maintained by the phone companies, and the government may access them only with a warrant from the FISA court. That's evidently not good enough for the Obama administration.

The Justice Department asked the FISA court to ignore the decision in May by a federal appeals court in the case of American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) vs. Clapper that said the National Security Agency overstepped its bounds in the bulk collection of phone data. "This Court may certainly consider ACLU v. Clapper as part of its evaluation of the Government's application, but Second Circuit rulings do not constitute controlling precedent for this Court," Assistant Attorney General John Carlin wrote in the request.