On October 10th, Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Moldovan President Igor Dodon while staying at his residence, Bocharov Ruchey, in Sochi. This was the sixth meeting of the presidents this year. The first was held in January, previous to that, the heads of the two countries had not met for nine years. 

At the beginning of the talks, Putin noted that he highly appreciates Dodon's efforts to normalize Russian-Moldovan relations, although "the process is not going smoothly," as …

US Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker and Russian Presidential Advisor Vladislav Surkov discussed the introduction of a peacekeeping contingent in the Donbas during their meeting in Belgrade, a Ukrainian government source told Apostrophe news website.

“Initially the peacekeepers will facilitate the delimitation of forces, a complete ceasefire and the withdrawal of equipment. Thereafter the Verkhovna Rada will adopt laws as part of the Minsk agreements, and there will be an exchange …

More than a million people from 170 Russian cities were evacuated after a wave of bomb threats, reported RIA Novosti, citing a source in emergency services.

“Starting on September 11, bomb threat calls have affected 2,046,000 people registered in 170 cities. A total of more than 1,040,000 people have been evacuated,” said the agency’s source.

He added that in the last 24 hours there were bomb threats made in connection with 115 facilities in seven cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg. …

Former Donbas separatist commander Igor Strelkov, with reference to his own sources, reported the loss of numerous Russian soldiers in Syria.

On his page on the social network Vkontakte, Strelkov cited the evidence of several sources who have fought in Syria

Strelkov’s first source has fought as part of the Wagner private military company, and has recently returned from Syria.

“According to him, in the last week three people in his platoon were killed and many were wounded,” Strelkov states. …

On Tuesday, October 10, a speech was given by Milos Zeman, President of the Czech Republic, at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Members of the Ukrainian delegation said that he advised Ukraine to abandon the Crimea in exchange for compensation from Russia.

“The Czech president just insulted Ukraine at the PACE meeting in Strasbourg. In response to my question about the Crimea, he said that the Crimea was illegally annexed, but it is not necessary to …

Ilya Shablinskiy, a member of Russia’s Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, admitted that Russia has effectively annexed and is controlling a part of the Donbas. Shablinsky made a statement to this effect in a broadcast of the “60 Minute” talk show on the Russian TV Channel “Russia 1”.

“These territories are controlled by our [Russian] armed forces. The ruble circulates, the territory is controlled by the Russian Federation, the leaders of these republics implement our …

Turkey has decided to tighten the criteria for the supply of Russian agricultural products, said Andrey Sizov, director of the SovEcon analytical center, Fontanka news website reports.

In his opinion, the restrictions could be related to the ban on the supply of tomatoes from Turkey.

“Yes, it's probably a matter of allowing Turkish tomatoes to enter the Russian market,” he said.

According to him, from now on, Russian companies will need to get invoices certified by Turkish officials.

“Now, …

Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine proposed a draft bill which proposes the introduction of a temporary restriction on Ukrainians travelling to Russia, as published on the parliament's website.

"Departure from Ukraine into the aggressor state is temporarily restricted to citizens who are civil servants (except for employees of diplomatic services, or in cases of departure with the purpose of urgent medical assistance or participation in the burial of a close relative)," the document …