• U.S. senators are preparing a bill on new sanctions against Russia

    United States senators are preparing a bipartisan draft bill about additional sanctions against Russia in connection with its hacker attacks on American political institutions and its activities in Ukraine and Syria. The Voice of America reported that the lawmakers confirmed this information when the Senate convened for a new session of Congress.

    Senator Ben Cardin, the leading Democrat of the Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters in Capitol Hill on January 3 that he was working on the …

  • Istanbul terror attack: Russian citizens detained by police

    On New Year’s eve, a gunman opened fire at the popular Reina club Istanbul. 39 people were killed and nearly 70 wounded. A couple days later, the so-called Islamic State took responsibility for the attack.

    The Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said that the law enforcement agencies have identified the terrorist, who is currently wanted, but did not name him.

    Overall, more than 40 people have been detained in connection with the terrorist attack in Istanbul.

    On January 4th, in a …

  • Russian ground forces to receive new Iskander-M missile complexes

    A military source told Interfax that the rearmament of missile brigades with tactical Iskander-M missile complexes will continue in 2017.

    "In the new year, the scheduled rearmament of the missile units from Tochka and Tochka-U to the modern Iskander-M will continue,'' the source said.

    Earlier, the head of the missile troops and artillery of the Russian Armed Forces, Lieutenant-General Mikhail Matveyevsky, reported that the rearmament of all existing units with the Iskander-M missile complex …

  • NATO fighters made 110 flights from the Baltic states to escort Russian Air Force aircraft in 2016

    Last year, NATO fighter jets stationed in Baltic countries scrambled 110 times to escort Russian military aircraft flying near the borders of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, as reported by postimees.ee, citing information from the Ministry of Defence of Lithuania. The activity of Russian aircraft still remains higher than before 2014.

    According to data provided by the Ministry of Defense to the Baltic News Service, in 2013 NATO fighters scrambled 47 times, in 2014, 140 times, in 2015, about 160 …

  • Lithuania called the militarization of Kaliningrad a challenge for NATO

    The Lithuanian Foreign Minister, Linas Linkevičius, said in an interview with The Times that he considers the Russian military build-up in Kaliningrad a challenge for NATO. 

    Particularly, Linkevičius called on NATO to stop "Russian military hooliganism” stating that “the military build-up in Kaliningrad is a challenge for NATO."

    Earlier, Lithuania stated that Russia is trying to limit the arrival of NATO allied ships to the Baltic States with the help of the new coastal missile complexes in …