• Major blackout hits Crimea

    On Friday, 28 July, another blackout hit the annexed Crimea. The blackout was reportedly caused by an accident in Krasnodar Krai in neighboring Russia.  

    It is reported that there is no power in the cities of Simferopol, Sevastopol, Yalta, Kerch, Feodosiya and other places.

    The Russia-controlled Ministry of Fuel and energy of the Crimea also confirms the loss of power throughout the peninsula. According to the Minister Vadim Belik, the Crimea was "completely without electricity" due to an …

  • Moldova denies entry to Russian artists and MPs

    The border authorities of Moldova have banned a Russian MP from the LDPR party, Pavel Shperov, from entry into the country's territory, reported Omega Media Group, citing a source in the Moldovan Ministry of Internal Affairs.

    According to the source, the MP was not allowed to leave the airport in Chisinau, and "was sent back on the nearest flight to Moscow" without an explanation why. The agency spokesman added that the border authorities also detained an additional ten people who were …

  • Putin says new U.S. sanctions against Russia are 'an act of rudeness'

    Russian President Vladimir Putin, commenting on the U.S. bill on sanctions against Russia, said that “it is impossible to endure rudeness endlessly.”

    “As you know, we act with great patience and restraint, but at some point we will have to respond. It is impossible to endure endlessly this rudeness in relation to our country,” Putin said at a press conference following the Russia-Finland talks, reports Interfax.

    According to the Russian president, the bill on sanctions is an attempt to use U. …

  • Saakashvili promises to get his Ukrainian citizenship back

    Former Odessa province governor Mikheil Saakashvili only has a Ukrainian passport and intends to have his citizenship restored “in court and through the streets,” said Saakashvili’s press representative Darina Chizh.

    According to her, the politician’s attorneys are already “working on this” and are preparing documents in order to appeal the Ukrainian president’s decree to revoke Saakashvili’s citizenship. “People have already started to go to the streets [in support of Saakashvili],” she …

  • Russian Ministry of Defense: Massive rearmament of Russian Army and Navy is underway

    In April to June, 2017, defense industry enterprises supplied over six hundred new models of military and special equipment to Russian troops, said Sergei Shoygu, the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation during “the Single Day for Military Goods Acceptance” event.

    “So far, 34.2% of the state defense order has been fulfilled with the delivery of new arms and 42.2% of the order has been fulfilled for repairs, which indicates satisfactory rates of smooth production flow of the defense …

  • In Russia, residents of Taymyr demand autonomy

    For the third time, a group of residents on the Taymyr Peninsula in Russia have submitted documents to the country’s election commission, demanding a referendum on the return to the status of an autonomous region, said Stella Koch, a member of the group, according to Radio Liberty.

    According to her, at the same time, representatives of the Evenkiysky District  sent a request to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation with a request to assess the Federal Constitutional Law on the …

  • Russian Minister of Defense: Russia formed four battalions of military police in de-escalation zones in Syria

    Four military police battalions have been formed in Syria to carry out tasks in the de-escalation zones, according to the Russian Defense Minister, Sergey Shoygu, as reported by the Russian Defense Ministry’s press service.

    "Four battalions of military police have been formed. They are currently carrying out tasks in the security belts of the de-escalation zones in the Syrian Arab Republic," Shoygu said at the Russian Defense Ministry meeting.

    According to him, the battalions have been formed …

  • Putin signs bill on deployment of Russian military air force in Syria

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a federal law ratifying a protocol to an agreement on the deployment of an air group of the Russian Armed Forces to Syrian territory.

    The document was published on Wednesday, on the official portal for legal information.

    "To ratify the protocol to the agreement between the Russian Federation and the Syrian Arab Republic on the deployment of an aviation group of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, …

  • For the sake of the MH17 case, the Netherlands will introduce conviction in absentia

    The Netherlands is changing the legislation regarding in absentia condemnation for the perpetrators of the crash of the Malaysian Airlines jetliner MH17 which was downed over eastern Ukraine, said Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine on European integration Olena Zerkal during an interview with Hromadske.

    "They [the Dutch authorities] are amending the legislation. This is why the negotiations on the agreement have continued for so long. In order to make this possible, together with the …

  • The Kremlin: US sanctions against Russia is sad and depressing news

    The Kremlin is not providing a detailed response to the US sanctions against Russia for now. However, the news about the sanctions are "sad" from the point of view of Russian-American relations, as stated by the press secretary of the Russian President, Dmitry Peskov.

    "Presently we are just talking about the bill, so we cannot give any substantive assessments. The response to this will be formulated after careful analysis, and the decision will certainly be made by the head of state, President …