The Russian Federation plans to start the year by again making budget amendments including a 10 percent spending cut due to the sharp decline in oil prices and the economic recession, Reuters reported. According to their sources, after a meeting with the Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, it was decided to adjust approved spending to 90% of the previously approved amount. "We have the minutes from the meeting. According to it, government offices are required to create new budget …

On the 9th of January, observers of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM)to Ukraine recorded 32 tanks (T-72 and T-64) in the temporarily occupied territories which are under the control of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The tanks were seen in Ternov, 57 km east of Donetsk, the report says.

The report notes that observers also found a T-64 tank the next day on the 10th of January in the territory that is controlled by the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), in Uspensk, …

The construction of the South Stream Pipeline remains suspended, as reported by Bulgarian National Radio based on Russian sources. Earlier the Standard, a Bulgarian newspaper, stated that the construction of the South Stream Pipeline may resume in the next few weeks. They reported that their sources stated that the delay is due to the deterioration of Russian-Turkish relations and the refusal of the Turkish Stream project which was discussed as an alternative to the South Stream.

On Monday, a …

Russia decided not to renew contract negotiations on the supply of electricity from Russia to Ukraine after its refusal to buy Ukrainian electricity for Crimea. According to the newspaper Kommersant, “Russia will stop commercial energy supplies to Ukraine. The contract will not be renewed in its last year.”

The Russian Federation’s Ministry of Energy stated that “Russia does not negotiate about the supply of electricity from Russia to Ukraine. We will not renew the present agreement, as …

On January 18th, at the meeting of the Committee of Foreign Affairs, the Council of the European Union will discuss the situation in Ukraine, reported the Council's press service. A discussion on the current situation in Syria and Iraq will also be on the agenda.

At the end of last year, the leaders of the "Normandy Four" (Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France) held talks over the phone and agreed to extend the validity of the Minsk Agreements into 2016. They also arranged another meeting of …

Finland’s national public-broadcasting company, Yle, cited the Lapland border service, who predicted that in the year 2016 about 7,500 refugees could enter Finland through the border with Russia. This forecast was made based on the current rate of arrival of asylum-seekers.

Since the beginning of the year around 200 refugees crossed the Finnish-Russian border through the checkpoints Salla and Raja-Jooseppi. Most of the refugees were Iraqis, Afghans, Nepalese and Syrians. Last year 700 …

Petro Poroshenko’s ratings as the current President of Ukraine will become critically low in the summer and autumn of 2016, according to one political analyst. As a result, he will be unable to hold on to his office.

This forecast was made by Ruslan Bortnik, the head of the Ukrainian Institute for Analysis and Management of Politics, during the press conference with the news agency GolosUA.

“Our president has only a year left. The same prediction has been made by his allies and the members of …

After meeting with one of the coordinators for the Syrian opposition, Rayad Farid Hijab, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Laurent Fabius, told reporters that Syria and Russia must halt military operations against civilians. According to the Minister they have discussed the absolute need to halt military actions which Russian and Syrian Government forces are taking against civilians. Fabius specified that the discussion was focused on the small Syrian town of …