• Lawyer of the Russian 'King of Spam' claims that conditions in United States prison are torturous

    The conditions of detention of Russian citizen Peter Levashov, who is charged with cyber-fraud and was extradited from Spain to the US, can be called "torture", said Levashov’s lawyer Igor Litvak in a conversation with Izvestia newspaper.

    The lawyer, according to the newspaper, said that his client was forbidden from calling family members, going out for walks, communicating with other prisoners, taking a shower and reading newspapers. Levashov was not allowed to go to a local store and was …

  • Ukraine initiates criminal proceedings against German deputies for visiting Crimea despite travel ban

    The Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea has initiated criminal proceedings as a result of the visit of German deputies from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to the peninsula.

    The case has been initiated on the basis of an appeal from the Embassy of Ukraine in Germany concerning the violation of entry and exit procedures from the Temporarily Occupied Territory (p. 1 art. 332-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine prescribes up to three years of imprisonment).

    " …

  • Putin cancels Kyrgyzstan's debt of $240 million

    President Vladimir Putin signed a bill on the ratification of an agreement between the governments of Russia and Kyrgyzstan on the settlement of the latter's debts on loans. 

    The agreement writes off the remainder of Kyrgyzstan’s debt totaling $ 240 million. Russia already wrote off the first part of the debt, $188.9 million back in 2013. Nevertheless, Kyrgyzstan still owed $300 million.

    Since Kyrgyzstan was not able to repay the debt, the countries agreed to write it off by $30 million a …

  • US expands 'Kremlin List' to include representatives of separatist LPR and DPR

    The U.S. Department of the Treasury has expanded the so-called Kremlin List of Russian oligarchs and close confidants of Russian President Vladimir Putin to include the names of separatist representatives of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), as reported by Radio Liberty.

    According to the report, the list was expanded to include nine ministers and one deputy minister of the separatist-held Donetsk and Luhansk regions as well a former Luhansk official and his family …

  • Russian Prime Minister Medvedev: IOC has adopted a shameful decision in denying 'justified' Russian athletes from participating in the Olympics

    Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Facebook that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has adopted a "shameful decision" in refusing to invite 15 "justified" athletes and coaches from Russia to attend the Winter Olympics in South Korea.

    "The IOC Commission has adopted a shameful decision. Unjust and unlawful. Immoral and politically motivated. By denying our athletes, whose rights were reinstated by a sports court designed specifically to resolve such disputable situations, the …