The White House has announced the official nomination of Marie Yovanovitch for the post of the United States Ambassador in Kiev, replacing Geoffrey R. Pyatt, who has been appointed as ambassador to Greece.  

Since 2012, Yovanovitch has held the position of Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau for European and Asian Affairs. As Assistant Secretary she was responsible for bilateral relations with the countries of Scandinavia, the Baltic States and Central Europe. Previously, she …

Ukrainian company, Naftogaz, has refused to pay Gazprom for gas delivered to the separatist-controlled territories of Donetsk and Luhansk.

On the 18th of May, Naftogaz reported that the Russian gas company had demanded a payment of $670 million for gas supplied to the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) from February 2015 to April 2016.

The report also stated that Naftogaz had not purchased gas from Gazprom since November 2015. Before that, it had …

The Investigative Committee (IC) of the Russian Federation has refused to question the former Chief of the Internal Troops of the Russian MIA, Viktor Zolotov, in connection with Boris Nemtsov's murder. Nemtsov's daughter, Zhanna Nemtsova, has now appealed to the courts to question Zolotov. This was reported to RIA Novosti by Nemtsova’s lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov.

“In November, we filed a petition with the IC requesting that they interrogate Viktor Zolotov but they refused. We have familiarized …

On the 25th of March 2016, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s company, Prime Assets Capital, transferred almost €4 million abroad. They did this by purchasing shares from a related company in Cyprus. This was stated during a journalistic investigation on Slіdstvo.Іnfo, which was published on the 18th of May.

According to the document, on the 25th of March, CEE Confectionary Investments Limited released 18,000 shares with a nominal value of one euro each. This was in addition to the 2,000 …

NATO and the European Union plan to expand their cooperation in regards to countering maritime threats and cyber-attacks.

The Alliance’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made the announcement during a meeting of the foreign ministers of NATO member states, Evropeyskaya Pravda reported.

“In the center of the agenda of the two-day meeting of the ministers will be a plan for stability, which will assess how we can continue to support our partners and neighbors,” Stoltenberg said.

According to …

The Pentagon stated that Russia has established a military base in the vicinity of Palmyra, Syria, despite Vladimir Putin’s announcement in March that the majority of Russian troops would be withdrawn from the war-torn country, Rosbalt reported.

 "It seems that they [Russia] created a kind of forward operating base, which gives them a base for a longer presence,” US Colonel Steve Warren stated during a videoconference from Baghdad.

According to him, Russia has not, in fact, reduced its troop …

The Prime Minister of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, stated during the International Legal Forum in Saint Petersburg that Russian companies have been subjected to pressure due to the sanctions imposed by number of countries against the Russian Federation over the last two years, as reported by a Rosbalt correspondent.

“There are attempts to push sanctions forward across the world contrary to agreements and international law. Our companies have been subjected to this pressure for two years. What kind …

The Council of Venice calls for the lifting of sanctions against Russia

The regional Council of Venice passed a resolution calling on the Italian Government to condemn the policy of the EU Council on Crimea and demand the lifting of sanctions against Russia, RIA Novosti reports. Venice also recognized the Crimea as part of Russia.

27 of the 51 members of the regional council voted in favor of the document. 

The document states that due to the anti-Russian sanctions Italy lost 3.6 million …