Contents tagged with Russia

  • Russian Tu-22M3 bomber crashes near Murmansk

    A Tu-22M3 bomber crashed while attempting to land at a military airfield in the Murmansk region of Russia, TASS  reported, citing a source in law enforcement agencies .

    "The Tu-22M3 crashed at 1:40 p.m. MSK [on Monday] while landing at the airport of the long-range aviation regiment of Olenegorsk,” the source told the agency. "According to preliminary information, the commander and navigator survived... The crew of this aircraft consists of four people: the commander, assistant commander, …

  • Ukraine prepared to extend gas transit agreement with Russia under European rules

    Andriy Kobolyev, CEO of Ukraine’s national oil and gas company Naftogaz, said in a press conference after trilateral negotiations in Brussels that the company is willing to extend the current agreements to transit Russian gas through Ukraine after 2019 if they comply with European regulations.

    “Naftogaz is willing to consider future agreements only if they completely abide by the European legislation that has been implemented in Ukraine,” Kobolyev said.

    He added that Naftogaz is open to all …

  • Putin asks Abe for investments during Kuril handover negotiations

    Russia hopes to expand its investment and technological collaboration with Japan, said Russian President Vladimir Putin following negotiations with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe in Moscow.

    After the leaders’ meeting in the Kremlin, to which Abe had come “fully resolved” to deal with the matter of the peace treaty – which has been left hanging for more than 50 years due to the territorial dispute surrounding the Kuril islands – Putin bemoaned the small amount of Japanese investments in …

  • Russia plans to send observers to presidential elections in Ukraine

    Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Grushko stated in an interview with TASS that Russia will send its observers to the presidential elections in Ukraine on March 31 as part of the OSCE mission.

    “Yes, we plan to send our observers and take part in the mission in accordance with all OSCE criteria,” he said. Grushko explained that Ukraine has no right to refuse to register observers. “Ukraine is a member of the OSCE. So, we act from the fact that Kyiv’s obligations, taken by …

  • Chechnya’s gas debts baffle Kremlin

    Russia’s senior leaders are still unsure how to respond publicly to the incident in Chechnya where the Grozny District Court ruled to write off the population’s gas debts to the amount of 9 billion rubles, provoking a wave of similar proposals in at least seven other regions, reports finanz.ru.

    This is a “very complex matter” and the Kremlin “has not taken a stance”, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said during a press conference on Monday.

    “In this case, the commodity has been supplied to …

  • Ukraine to reduce its claim against Russia's Gazprom if new transit contract is signed

    Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas company Naftogaz will reduce the amount of the new claim against Gazprom from $12 billion to $2 billion if Russian gas monopolist signs a new transit contract, stated Naftogaz CEO Yuriy Vitrenko in Brussels, Ukrinform reports.

    "Indeed, the sum of new claims is about 12 billion dollars. Part of these claims is because we do not expect gas transit through Ukrainian territory after 2019... The chances of winning are very high. We have already proven that when we …

  • PACE deprives Ukraine of seats in the committee responsible for sanctions against Russia

    The Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe or PACE amended the rules for the formation of committees, effectively removing Ukraine from the committee responsible for lifting sanctions imposed by PACE against Russia, reported the correspondent of the Ukrainian news agency Evropeiska Pravda from Strasbourg.

    According to the new rules, there can be no more than two representatives of each Member State in the regulating committee and the committee on the election of judges …

  • Kremlin prepares to block Twitter and Facebook

    Roskomnadzor, the Russian federal executive body responsible for media and telecommunication censorship, has begun an administrative procedure against Facebook and Twitter, which do not abide by Russia’s law on personal data.

    The social networks, which are legally obligated to store users’ personal data in Russia, have not proposed any specific plans or deadlines to localize this information, Roskomnadzor director Alexander Zharov told Interfax.

    According to him, the companies have one month, …

  • Media: Japanese Prime Minister will push for a peace treaty with Russia in exchange for only two Kuril Islands

    Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering the possibility of concluding a peace treaty with Russia if Moscow gives only two of the four disputed Kuril Islands to Japan, reported the Japanese news agency Kyodo with reference to government sources.

    According to the sources of the news agency, the prime minister of Japan is ready to focus on the transfer of Habomai and Shikotan, the smaller islands of the Kuril Ridge. As noted by the sources, he understands that if Tokyo continues to …

  • Gazprom offers Ukraine to extend gas contracts after 2019 without further consultations

    The Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin, after the completion of negotiations between Ukraine, the EU, and Russia in Brussels, stated that the Russian company Gazprom is ready to extend gas contracts after 2019 without even conducting expert consultations.

    “Mr. Miller [ the Head of Gazprom] emphasized three times that they are ready to continue existing contracts. These contracts are probably a source of joy for them. At the same time, he said that these contracts could be …