• Latvia detects Russian warships near its territorial waters

    The National Armed Forces of Latvia detected two Russian warships near the country's borders.

    "In the Latvian exclusive economic zone, five nautical miles from territorial waters, the Naval Forces identified a Steregushchiy-class frigate of the Russian Navy on April 28,” the message of the Latvian National Armed Forces reads.

    In addition, eight nautical miles from the territorial waters of Latvia, a Gorin-class Russian tugboat was spotted.

    Latvia regularly reports on the Russian warships …

  • Media: Merkel invited Trump to visit his ancestral homeland in Germany

    During a meeting with US President Donald Trump on Friday, German Chancellor Angela President Trump to visit the homeland of his ancestors, the village of Kallstadt in the federal state of the Rhineland-Palatinate from where his grandparents emigrated in the 19th century, Bild reported on Sunday with reference to sources in the German delegation.

    According to the publication, this was Merkel’s way of reminding Trump that he has a special bond with Germany. In addition, she presented to the …

  • Russia's Rostec reduces its claim against Siemens in Crimean turbines case

    A representative of Russian engineering company Technopromexport, a subsidiary of Rostec filed an application at the arbitration court of Moscow against German conglomerate AG and its two Russian subsidiaries for a fourfold reduction of the amount of claim, reported RIA Novosti.

    “Now, Technopromexport, a minority shareholder of the company Interautomatika demands the recovery of about 46.8 million rubles [or 742 thousand dollars] and 1.4 million for Interautomatika. Initially, a suit was …

  • Syrian and pro-Iranian forces attack US-Led coalition near Deir ez-Zor

    The Syrian Army and Iran-sponsored militias attacked the positions of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on the east bank of the Euphrates. The Syrian forces managed to take control of several villages located north-east of the city of Deir ez-Zor. The Syrian state agency SANA confirmed the information.

    Later, the SDF forces brought reinforcements from Conoco oil field. They mounted a counteroffensive and with the support of strikes by the US-led coalition aircraft regained control of the lost …

  • Deripaska’s companies ask Kremlin for help after falling under US sanctions

    The Ministry of Energy of Russia received a formal request for government support from En+ Group and Rusal who have fallen under US sanctions, TASS reported, citing Deputy Minister Vyacheslav Kravchenko.

    "They have sent us support measures that they require. There are quite a few of them, we are working with them," he said, without specifying which measures the companies are asking for or when they would be enacted. "Rusal made a large number of proposals. There are a lot of them. We are …

  • Russia unblocks 3 million of Amazon’s IP addresses

    On April 28, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) unblocked 3 million IP addresses from two sub-networks of Amazon cloud services, as reported by usher2.club online service which keeps track of websites and services blocked in Russia. The unblocking of sub-networks of Amazon was also confirmed by Roskomnadzor.

    “Roskomnadzor unblocked three sub-networks of a number of foreign hosting providers in order to lift restrictions …

  • A mountain in Crimea sheltering highly endangered species is being destroyed

    Ongoing construction is destroying a mountain in Koktebel, Pol'ovyi Lane that is home to species of plants listed in the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List, as stated by Olga Vecher, an architect and expert on landscape and architectural complexes and historical and cultural reserves, in an interview with Krym.Realii’s correspondent.

    According to the architect, the mountain is being demolished by construction workers who are decimating layers of soil. "The mountain …

  • Russia admits its GLONASS navigation satellites are made of over 50 percent of foreign components

    Spacecraft of the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) are currently made-up of almost 60 percent foreign components, CEO Nikolay Testoyedov told RIA Novosti. Testoyedov is the CEO of the ISS-Reshetnev company, a manufacturer of satellites. According to him, Roskosmos State Corporation, the governmental agency responsible for Russia’s cosmonautics programs, has developed a program of import substitution. Following this substitution plan, by 2022, GLONASS spacecraft should not be …

  • Russia recognizes that it’s impossible to block Telegram messenger

    RIA Novosti reports that Russian Internet ombudsman Dmitry Marinichev claims that blocking Telegram by adding IP addresses to the blacklist is impossible.

    "Even considering that the client part of Telegram is open source. The code is open. It can be analyzed and how it works can be understood. Because Telegram is not a website, it's an application. It's almost impossible to close [such] a resource through IP addresses," he said.

    According to Marinichev, "the block could last forever." He …

  • Poland proposes to change format of Ukraine-NATO meetings to avoid Hungary’s blocking vote

    Ukrinform reports that Jacek Czaputowicz, The Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, has proposed to change the format of the meetings of the Ukraine-NATO Commission in order to bypass Hungary's veto for holding formal meetings.

    In Czaputowicz’s opinion, it is necessary to find an opportunity for holding "less formal" meetings between Kyiv and Brussels.

    "Perhaps we will find a way out, another, less formal format, so that Ukrainians can participate in this discussion," Czaputowicz said.

    On …