Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey held an official event to open a new railroad, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars line. The new route passes through the three countries and provides passenger and freight railroad transit between Europe and China surpassing Russia and Armenia.

The opening event took place in Alat, Azerbaijan, a village in a remote part of the Baku capital suburb, 70 kilometers southeast of the city. The ceremony was attended by top leaders of Azerbaijan and Turkey and the prime ministers of …

The U.S. State Department explained the updated sanctions issued by the Ministry of Finance on October 31, saying that it will work with its allies on the issue of pressuring Russia with sanctions, RIA Novosti reported.

“We will work with our allies and partners in the implementation of these sanctions in order to impose costs on the Russian government, while seeking to avoid unforeseen negative impacts on others,” the State Department said.

On October 31, the U.S. Treasury Department banned …

The US Department of Treasury updated Directive No. 4, originally introduced in 2014, as part of the sanctions against Russia due to the conflict in Ukraine. Restrictions against Russian oil companies have been extended to future projects on developing recoverable oil outside Russia.

The new sanctions law (CAATSA -Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act), signed by US President Donald Trump on August 2nd, required the amendment of this directive. The amendments had to be made by …

Russian strategic bombers carry out air strikes in Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor

Six Tu-22M3 long-range strategic bombers flew from their bases in Russia and carried out air strikes at the targets in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor, as reported by the Russian Ministry of Defense. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, strikes were carried out against ISIS facilities near the town of Abu Kamal.

"Six Tu-22M3 long-range strategic bombers that have taken off from the Russian territory, …

Russia has caused significant damage to the ecology of annexed Crimea, as stated by the leader of the Crimean Tatar people, Mustafa Dzhemilev, at a briefing on the draft resolution of the UN Security Council on human rights in the Crimea. "Russia has violated all agreements by its actions. The ecology of the Crimea has been damaged. Groundwater dropped, the territory will require billions of dollars to rehabilitate," said Dzhemilev.

The leader of the Crimean Tatar people also noted that …

In the Estonian military town of Tapa, the construction of a large defensive complex for the deployment of a NATO battalion group has been completed, Postimees.ee reports.

“The complex [at the NATO military base in Tapa] will be ceremonially opened by Defense Minister Jüri Luik together with representatives of the Estonian Defense Forces and representatives of [our] allies. The complex includes 20 buildings, including three barracks, a cafeteria, training facilities and auxiliary buildings. …

The Constitutional Court of Moldova recognizes the Liberal-Democratic Party’s alleal to change the country’s official language from Moldovan to Romanian as legal, the court’s press service announced, as reported by Ukrinform.

“The initiative of a group of MPs [to change the designation of the official language from Moldovan to Romanian] corresponds to the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova,” the court’s ruling observes.

The court’s ruling is final and is not subject to …

Billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin is prepared to buy the news outlet Fontanka, which recently published a series of articles about his activities, reported Novaya Gazeta with reference to its own sources.

According to the newspaper, the offer to sell Fontanka (and simultaneously Delovoy Peterburg) to Prigozhin was made by people who have no relation to the news outlet “on paper”, but “hold weight in deciding its fate”. As Novaya notes, pressure was exerted “on the level of presidential …