Belarus has decided not to buy electricity from Russia at the prices proposed by Russia, as announced by Energy Minister Vladimir Potupchik, Belta news agency reports.

 As of 2018, the country plans to completely stop importing electricity.

The minister made this statement after concluding negotiations with Russia on the purchase of electricity. “We reached the conclusion that we will not buy it at Russia’s prices, instead we will replace it with our own generation,” he said.

Previously, …

Switzerland extended for a year the freezing of the accounts of the former presidents of Tunisia and Ukraine and of persons associated with them, stated the Federal Council of Switzerland on its website.

"At its meeting on December 20, the Federal Council decided to extend for a year the freezing of all accounts in Switzerland of the defunct presidents Ben Ali of Tunisia and Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine and their entourage and other persons closely associated with them," the report said.

The …

The High Court of England has issued an order for a global freeze of assets held by former PrivatBank owners and managers Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Gennadiy Bogolyubov. The assets are valued at more than $2.5 billion, according to a press release from Privatbank obtained by RBC.

The bank confirmed that it had started a trial in the High Court of London. According to the report, on December 19, 2017, the High Court of England issued an order for a global freeze on the assets of Kolomoyskyi and …

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law which envisages fines for messengers that do not comply with Russian legislation.

The relevant document was published on Russia’s official legal information portal.

If messengers fail to meet the obligations established by the legislation on information, information technologies and information protection, Russian citizens will be faced with fines from 3 to 5 thousand rubles, officials with fines from 30 to 50 thousand rubles, and legal entities …

Bulgarian Defense Minister Krasimir Karakachanov said that Sofia suspended the deal with Russia to repair MiG-29 aircraft because of a complaint by Ukrainian Ukroboronprom company, as reported on the Bulgarian Defense Ministry’s website.

The Russian company was to re-equip 15 old MiG fighters for the Bulgarian armed forces. However, due to the complaint by Ukraine to the Commission on Protection of Competition, the authorities of the country were forced to suspend the process.

Karakachanov …

British intelligence believes that the Buk anti-aircraft missile system used in the summer of 2014 to shoot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine was brought into the country and subsequently recovered by the Russian military. This was stated in the report of the Intelligence and Security Committee of the British Parliament with reference to the Secret Intelligence Service or MI6.

In particular, the report quotes from MI6 documents of 2016 stating that "without any doubt,” the Buk was …

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov was sanctioned by the United States under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 (the Magnitsky Act), according to the updated sanctions list published on the website of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Besides Kadyrov, four other Russians were targeted under the Magnitsky Act: Ayub Kataev, Yulia Mayorova, Andrei Pavlov, and Alexei Sheshenya.

The American authorities consider Kadyrov guilty of “killings, torture, and other gross …

Russia is ready to return its servicemen to the Joint Center for the Control and Coordination (JCCC) for issues related to the ceasefire and the stabilization of the contact line.

“Russia’s representative in our security group just made an official statement that Russia is ready to return its representatives of the military to the JCCC under certain conditions. This the approval of the provision on the JCCC, its status, guarantees for security, etc.” wrote Ukrainian special representative in …