The International Monetary Fund (IMF) suspended negotiations with Belarus on the credit program in order to clarify the official policies in a number of sectors of the country, as announced on Thursday by the official representative of the organization, William Murray, at a press briefing.

“Negotiations on the [credit] program have been suspended in anticipation of clarifying the Belarusian leadership’s policy regarding, in particular, state enterprises, housing, and communal services. Our …

Eastern European countries are in an atmosphere of "fear and uncertainty" in connection with the forthcoming West-2017 joint Russian and Belarusian military exercise, said Polish Ambassador to the United States Piotr Wilczek. The West-2017 drills will take place on the territory of Belarus from September 14 to 20.

"We do not know much about this exercise due to the lack of transparency. This is primarily a danger to Ukraine and it is a potential threat to other countries too. I'm not saying …

The CEO of Silovye Mashiny, which was involved in a scandal with Siemens turbines, has been fired In Russia.

As reported by Interfax, the Board of Directors of Silovye Mashiny passed a decision July 19 on the early termination of Roman Filippov's powers.

 On July 13, Filippov was interrogated in Russia for a criminal case concerning the disclosure of state secrets.

The Board of Directors of PJSC Silovye Mashiny appointed a new CEO after Roman Filipov's resignation. The new CEO is Filippov's …

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has removed PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) from the registry of auditing firms which have the right to audit banks.

The relevant decision was made on July 20 by the NBU’s executive board on the basis of a request from the Committee on matters of bank auditing, the NBU’s press service reported.

The announcement points out that the reason for the decision was the fact that PWC affirmed inaccurate information about the financial-economic activity of PrivatBank ( …

A notice regarding a fine for ExxonMobil was placed on the US Ministry of Finance’s website. The notice points out that company and its subsidiary organizations (ExxonMobil Development Co. and ExxonMobil Oil Corp.) violated §589.201 of the sanction legislation introduced in connection with the events in Ukraine. This paragraph imposes a ban on deals with entities on the sanction list.

The violation with the company’s involvement took place in the period between the 14th and the 23rd of May 2014 …

During his debate with Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny , former head of the DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) separatists  Igor Girkin, also known as “Strelkov”, said that he trusted Russian President Vladimir Putin when he saw that Putin opposed the West and what he did with the annexation of Crimea.

The former separatist leader clarified that he thought Putin’s next step would be to clean up his surroundings.

“In 2014 I supported Putin because I really believed that he would …

On Thursday, President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė observed the progress of the Tobruq Legacy 2017 international military exercises in Šiauliai, where she stated that the US Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems should be placed in the Baltic region.

NATO's Tobruq Legacy-2017 air defense military exercises were launched in Lithuania on July 11 and will end on July 22. They involve about 500 military personnel and 30 air defense personnel from the UK, the US, Latvia and Poland.

Before the …

The Russian landing ship Nikolay Filchenkov entered the waters of the Mediterranean Sea on the way to Syria, Interfax reported.

The vessel is headed to the Syrian port of Tartus, where the logistics center of the Russian Navy in the Mediterranean Sea is located. This is the Filchenkov’s seventh campaign.

According to Turkish media, on July 16, a Kyzyl-60 auxiliary transport ship of the Russian Navy passed through the Black Sea straits bearing cargo bound for Syria. On July 10, the landing …