The President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, signed the law ratifying the protocol for Montenegro’s membership in the North-Atlantic Alliance, Ukrinform reported, with reference to the Office of the President of Poland.

“The Montenegrin side has repeatedly signaled that it wants Poland, host of the NATO Summit and a country that strongly supports the membership of [Montenegro] in the Alliance, to be one of the first member countries that will ratify the Protocol of Accession,” the report said. The …

The Anti-doping Agencies of Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States condemned the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for their unwillingness to take responsibility for the decision on the admission of Russian athletes at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, as indicated in a statement by the heads of the National Anti-doping agencies of 13 countries, the Guardian reports.

The representatives of these …

On Sunday, separatists in the Donetsk area used 152mm and 122mm heavy artillery weapons, which are prohibited by the Minsk Agreements, the Ukrainian Headquarters press service reported on July 31. According to them, Russian forces opened fire 27 times on Ukrainian positions on Sunday.“The most challenging situation is in the Donetsk area. Heavy artillery of 152mm and 122mm caliber, 120mm mortars, grenade launchers, large-caliber machine guns and small arms were used by the enemy in Avdiivka. …

Five Russian servicemen were killed in Syria when the military transport helicopter in which they were flying was shot down by rebels, TV Dozhd reported.

The Mi-8 helicopter was carrying three crew members and two officers.

The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the helicopter was returning from delivering humanitarian aid to the besieged city of Aleppo.

Last month, two Russian pilots, Colonel Ryafagat Habibullin and Lt. Eugene Dolgin, were killed when their Mi-35 helicopter was shot …

The fall in oil prices and the weakening of the ruble has led to the decrease of Russian consumers’ purchasing power. Producers are forced to reduce food prices while skimping on quality, according to revelations by Der Spiegel.

According to the newspaper, Russian producers use vegetable oil instead of animal fats and they violate safety regulations by selling radioactive mineral water, milk with ammonia and caviar infected with colon bacillus. Russia is actively using palm oil in the food …

A German table-tennis player from the late 1950s – early 1960s, former President of the German Table Tennis Federation and a member of the National Olympic Committee of Germany, Hans Wilhelm Gäb, returned his Olympic medal which he received in 2006. He explained that he was doing so as a result of his disagreement with the decision of the IOC to allow the Russian national team to participate in the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio, reports rp-online.de.

Gäb also reflected his protest in a letter sent …

Russia’s First Deputy Finance Minister Tatyana Nesterenko stated if reforms are not implemented, the State will have no funds to pay wages by the end of 2017. According to her, stability is only provided due to reserve funds.

The lack of reforms in the Russian economy may lead to spending reserves and economic problems by the end of 2017, Nesterenko stated.

"If changes are not made, we will have no reserves, no ability to pay wages, we will have serious economic problems by the end of the …

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, commenting on the detention of one of the ex-leaders of the Party of Regions, Oleksandr Yefremov, who is suspected of involvement in the creation of the so-called LPR, stated that the General Prosecutor’s Office has set up a telephone line and two email accounts to gather information about individuals who helped to create the terrorist organizations Luhansk People’s Republic and Donetsk People’s Republic.

"The GPU has set up a direct telephone line ( …