Contents tagged with Putin

  • Putin calls off Idlib offensive after negotiations with Erdogan

    Russia will not hold a military operation in Syria’s Idlib province, home to 3 million people, which the Kremlin called a “nest of terrorists” earlier in September.

    The decision to call off the Russian Aerospace Forces’ offensive was announced by Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu on Monday. The Russian aircraft had been bombing the region to clear the way for Assad’s troops since September 4.

    Following negotiations between Russian and Turkish presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Erdogan …

  • Finnish president: Finland not ready to join NATO yet because of Russia's position

    At this stage, Finland does not consider the prospect of joining the North Atlantic alliance, President Sauli Niinisto said in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. According to him, Moscow "made it clear" that if Finland joins NATO, it will "see it as an enemy."

    "The Russians made it clear that when they look at us across the border, they see Finnish people." If we join NATO, they will see us as enemies. That is their position, "explained Niinisto. He added that joining the …

  • Kremlin: Russia and Japan intend to continue work to conclude peace treaty

    Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, said during a broadcast of Russia 1 TV channel that the negotiations between Moscow and Tokyo on the peace treaty will continue,  RIA Novosti reports.

    Peskov stressed that neither side has refused to continue negotiations to reach a consensus. He explained that each side has their own “limits” and nuances in their approaches. “But, strategically, Abe and Putin confirmed their intention to work on the conclusion of a peace treaty,” he …

  • Japan tells Russia: dispute over Kuril Islands must be settled before any peace treaties are discussed

    Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposed peace treaty with Japan would be impossible without settling the territorial dispute, said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the pre-election debates.

    The Prime Minister recalled that Tokyo’s position regarding the status of the South Kurils, what he called the “northern territories,” remains unchanged and he personally stated this during the meeting with Putin. “I expressed our position to Russian President Vladimir Putin. First, we should …

  • Condoleezza Rice: Putin has very smartly hidden his assets

    The US needs international assistance to find the secret assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in her speech at the forum of the Yalta European Strategy (YES), Evropeyska Pravda reports.

     “Of course, this problem did not arise at the time when we were in power but I would venture to suggest that finding these secret assets [of Vladimir Putin] will be more difficult than it seems. The fact is that Putin is smart and he has very smartly …

  • US promises to support decision to give Ukrainian church autocephaly

    The US will support the decision to grant the Ukrainian church autocephaly, said US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback at a meeting in Kyiv with Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy.

    “At the stage of deciding whether to grant the Ukrainian Orthodox Church a Tomos of autocephaly, we will not interfere. But when such a decision has been made, we will support it,” the diplomat promised.

    Andriy Parubiy pointed out that the matter of creating an independent …

  • Japan rejects Putin’s peace treaty proposal

    Japan has rejected the proposition of Vladimir Putin to sign a peace treaty without preliminary conditions.

    Putin made the proposition on Wednesday at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

    Tokyo’s position remains unchanged: the document cannot be signed until the territorial dispute between Russia and Japan is settled.

    “We will persistently continue to hold negotiations on the basis of the previous course: first deal with the problems, with the return of the ‘northern territories’, and …

  • Russia to fire Iskander-M missile systems during Vostok 2018 exercise

    Troops from the missile unit of the 41st Combined Arms Army of Russia’s Central Military District, which is stationed in the Sverdlovsk region, will fire shots from Iskander-M mobile tactical missile systems at the Kapustin Yar training ground as part of the Vostok 2018 military exercises, said the Russian Defense Ministry on Wednesday.

    “Iskander-M missile system crews were transferred earlier to the Astrakhan region by railroad transport. At the training ground, the troops marched to position …

  • Kremlin: Putin has no plans to visit Vostok 2018 military exercises with other leaders

    Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to have no intention of inviting other world leaders to join him in attending  the Vostok 2018 military exercises. His press secretary Dmitry Peskov said there are no plans “[to invite other leaders to visit the exercises] together with the President of Russia,” Interfax reports. Peskov added that does not know if the leaders of other countries will attend the exercises separately.

    The Vostok 2018 exercises will be held in Siberia and in the Far East …

  • Russia creates an offshore zone on an island that does not exist

    One of the two newly created Russian offshore companies on Oktyabrsky Island, cannot be realized, since the island does not exist as a geographical entity, writes the newspaper Vedomosti.

    The publication refers to the words of Deputy Finance Minister Ilya Trunin, who complained that his “Kaliningrad colleagues have a basic problem".

    ”As it turns out, there is no Oktyabrsky Island in the Kaliningrad region. This geographical entity does not exist,” the official noted.

    According to the former …