• 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 …

  • SBU wants to ban the French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen from entering Ukraine

    The leader of the French far-right presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, said that the annexation of the Crimea by Russia "was not illegal since the people voted to join Russia in the referendum."

    As UNIAN reported, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) sent a letter to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry requesting that the presidential candidate of the French far-right party, Marine Le Pen, be banned from entering the country, due to her statements about Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

    "On …

  • French banks refused to issue a credit for the election campaign of Marine Le Pen

    The leader of the National Front (FN), Marine Le Pen, is facing difficulties with financing her campaign for the upcoming presidential elections in France. As the politician herself has said on BFM-TV, she currently lacks about €6 million in funding needed to run a successful campaign.

    "No French bank has agreed to issue a loan for me to conduct an election campaign," the politician said.

    The FN leader noted that "French banks freely lend money to other parties. I regard this as a political …

  • 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 …