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France accuses Russia of making false statements about the chemical attack in Syria
Russia is spreading contradictory statements on the chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma, said the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs in a statement published on the Ministry's website. These statements contradict the facts gathered by Paris, French diplomats stated.
French officials stated that the experts of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) still do not have access to the place where the chemical attack took place. According to the French Foreign …
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Russia sends 2 additional warships to Syria
Two guided-missiles warships of the Russian Black Sea fleet are on their way to Syria to reinforce the flotilla based at Syria’s port city of Latakia, as reported by the observers monitoring the ship traffic in the Bosphorus Strait.
The two Russian warships have been identified as the 868 Pytilvy Krivak-class frigate and the 870 Smetlivy Kashin-class destroyer.The 868 Pytily specializes is an anti-ship and anti-submarine frigate. The 870 Smetlivyy is a an assault ship capable of carrying out …
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Kremlin considers helping companies that have been hit by US sanctions
The Press Secretary of the Russian President, Dmitry Peskov commented on the proposal of the Head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin to temporarily nationalize Rusal, a Russian company that fell under US sanctions.
Peskov noted that the Cabinet of Ministers, on behalf of Chairman of the Government Dmitry Medvedev, is engaged in providing possible support to companies who are faced with the pressure of the sanctions. He noted that this topic is " …
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Russian oligarchs hire US lobbyists to protect themselves from sanctions
Russian billionaires Alexander Skorobogatko and Alexander Ponomarenko have hired professional lobbyists in the US after they were included in the US Department of Treasury’s “Kremlin list” this past January. A corresponding notice from the lobby firm Qorvis MSLGROUP appeared last week in a special US Senate database.
The services that the company will provide to the Russian businessmen are rather abstract: "business interests [on behalf of Skorobogatko and Ponomarenko] and relations with the …
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Human rights activists: four suspicious deaths occurred in the Simferopol pre-trial detention center in April
At least four people died an unnatural death in the Simferopol pre-trial detention center (SIZO-1) controlled by Russian authorities. Two were Crimean Tatars, reported the Crimean Human Rights Group.
"The Crimean Human Rights Group has information that on April 6, Server Bilyalov, 69 years old, and Oleg Goncharov, 46 years old were allegedly found hanged. On April 12, 23-year-old Dmitry Shipovnik was also found hanged in the punishment cell," human rights activists said. On April 13, in cell …