Interviews

ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) - Gianmatteo Ferrari of Italy's Lega party expressed hope in comments to Sputnik that the United States and Russia may still rescue their Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, even after the US decision to pull out from it, to avert new threats to peace.

The European Space Agency's first mission to Mercury is set to blast off on Saturday. A UK-built spacecraft BepiColombo will be launched from the European spaceport in French Guyana and will reach its destination by 2025.

Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau Nieto arrived in Syria on September 29 with Russian soldiers. Instead of a rifle, the Spanish battle painter had a much more powerful weapon in his hands – a notebook where he made sketches that would later become a painting reflecting life in Aleppo.

Eugene Kaspersky, a cybersecurity expert and the CEO of Kaspersky Lab, - one of Russia's leading cybersecurity companies, - has talked with Sputnik about the company's business activities amid pressure in the United States and the firm's long-term goals as well as the environment in the tech industry.

Sammy Kotwani, the Honorary President of the Indian Business Alliance, say this is the best time for Indian and Russian small and medium enterprises to forge joint ventures to lend the required thrust to build bilateral trade, especially given the backdrop of unilateral US sanctions.

Sputnik’s Jon Gaunt sits down with special guest Tommy Robinson in a frank discussion over his recent battle with the UK establishment, the low down and the real facts about his ongoing court case, his torturous treatment while imprisoned, his ongoing battles with Islam in the UK and the way the main stream media misrepresents him.

What is the #EdCrunch University? What are its goals? Why do even school students need to learn to work with big data? Is it true the university teachers’ comfort zone does not include computers?

The 20th Neuroinformatics International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks organized by the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI brought together major experts in the field of artificial neural networks, neurobiology and biophysics of systems.

- Do you even have frozen human heads? - We do, but you won’t be able to take a picture of them. This is more or less the conversation that took place on a regional train to Semkhoz station about 66 km from Moscow. Here, in a small street, there is an absolutely unremarkable house and a small industrial building with a crooked roof next to it.

Maison Baccarat, a renowned French manufacturer of fine crystal glassware, is celebrating the 10th anniversary since the opening of its first store in Russia with an exhibition of the legendary Zenith crystal chandeliers. Daniela Riccardi, the chief executive officer of Baccarat, has given an interview with Sputnik on the occasion.

This October marks the 25th anniversary of the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, which began as a row between President Yeltsin and his opponents, leading to clashes and the shelling of the White House. Fred Weir, a Canadian journalist who covered the so-called “Black October” events in Moscow shared his experience with Sputnik.

Gurdeep Kaur Chawla, a diplomatic interpreter, shares her experiences of interpreting for Obama, Trump and Modi, in an exclusive interview with Sputnik.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have pledged to rebuild strained ties despite differences on civil rights and other issues. Jana Jabbour, a professor of political science and expert on Turkey and the Middle East, told Sputnik that Erdogan got all he wanted from his talks with Merkel.

The defeat of pro-China Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom in the presidential elections in the Maldives has brought respite to India, which now hopes the new government will make efforts to recalibrate ties with India. However, a former Indian diplomat observes that there is no guarantee that the transfer of power in the Maldives will be a smooth one.

Indu Bhushan, CEO of India’s Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyan, also dubbed as "Modicare," says the ambitious scheme would not be a burden on the exchequer, as suggested by critics. The scheme is aimed at providing cashless health insurance to almost half of India’s population.

Nepal’s decision to pull out of the joint BIMSTEC military drill in Pune couldn’t have come at a worse time for India with the Nepali Army set to participate in a 12-day-long joint military exercise with China from September 17 in Chengdu.

Russian nationals Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, suspected by the United Kingdom of involvement in the Skripal poisoning case, in exclusive interview with Sputnik, RT editor-in-chief revealed details on their trip in Salisbury. Alan Bailey, a political activist, in a written interview with Sputnik commented on the issue.

Iris scanning is the latest identification technology that will allow safer financial transactions, Dr. Leon Perlman, head of the Digital Financial Services Observatory at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information told Sputnik. This and other new technologies were discussed at last week's AFI Global Policy Forum (GPF) held in Sochi, Russia.

US Senator Richard Black in an exclusive interview with Sputnik, revealed how the Syrian people see their president, what went wrong with the US policy in the Mideast and also expressed his admiration for the state of human rights in the country, as "Syria has the greatest women’s rights and the greatest religious freedoms of any Arab country."

BONN (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko - While the world is well on its way toward a low-carbon or even fossil-fuel-free reality, many people are still scared of introducing changes to their everyday lives and believe that green technologies, electric vehicles, and rooftop solar panels are from a futuristic movie or a very advanced city.