The so-called head of annexed Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov was an active member of the Crimean organized crime group "Salem" in the 1990s and 2000s, who only managed to avoid prison thanks to powerful patrons, as stated in an interview with the Observer news website by the first deputy head of the National Police of Ukraine, the head of the criminal police, Vyacheslav Abroskin.

"In the 90’s, when I first started to work on the investigation in Crimea, the problem with organized crime came to the …

Speaking at the economic forum in Vladivostok on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin commented on US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, noting that he "fell into some bad company" after receiving a state award from Russia four years ago for his contribution to the development of Russian-American relations.

Addressing one of the US citizens present at the plenary session of the economic forum, Putin said, "We also awarded the Order of Friendship to your compatriot, Mr. Tillerson. However, …

Ukraine has signed a contract with American coal companies to supply more than 700,000 tons of anthracite coal to replace Russian supplies, President Petro Poroshenko said during his annual address to Parliament.

According to Poroshenko, the first batch of anthracite should be expected in the coming days.

"The first batch of the American anthracite, which will replace the Russian, is already expected in a few day. More than 700,000 tons have been additionally contracted from the USA," …

The pro-Russian president of Moldova, Igor Dodon, has signed a decree suspending the government's decision, published in the Official Monitor, to send a military contingent of the National Army to the Rapid Trident-2017 exercises in Ukraine.At the same time, he promised to lower the ranks of servicemen who left for the exercises, Presidential spokesman Ion Ceban wrote on his Facebook page.

"The government's decision to send Moldovan soldiers to the exercises in Ukraine was suspended by …

Germany and France have criticized the future joint Zapad-2017 military exercises by Russia and Belarus, saying that Moscow is trying to demonstrate its military strength near the border with the EU and NATO.

"It is particularly important in this context that we reaffirm our presence in the face of...this demonstration the Russians are making, which is a strategy of intimidation," French Defense Minister Florence Parly said on September 7, as part of an informal meeting of the defense …

The state-owned concern Ukroboronprom plans to be involved in the program to upgrade the T-72 tanks in the Polish Armed Forces so that they comply with NATO standards.

As reported by Ukroboronprom’s press service on Thursday, one of the options for upgrading the Polish T-72s, a PT-17 tank, upgraded jointly by Ukroboronprom and Polish Zaklady Mechaniczne “Bumar-Labedy” S.A, was presented to a potential client during the International Defense Industry Exhibition MSPO 2017, held in Kielce (Poland) …

According to the Kremlin, the DPR’s (Donetsk People’s Republic) and LPR’s (Luhansk People’s Republic) consent must be one of the conditions for peacekeeping forces to be deployed in the Donbas.

The Kremlin’s position was voiced by Dmitry Peskov, press secretary to the Russian president, RBC reports.

“The conflict in south-eastern Ukraine is something to be negotiated primarily between Kyiv and the authorities of the unrecognized republics – LPR and DPR. This is, perhaps, the core modality …

The Russian banking group VTB cannot sell two of its subsidiary banks in Ukraine: VTB and BM Bank. This was stated on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum by the head of VTB, Andrey Kostin.

"We will reduce the size of business and expenses, sell the assets little by little, take back loans, and sell all kinds of collateral. And withdraw from there. No one will allow anything to be sold there, probably," Kostin said.

VTB Group in May last year announced its intention to sell Ukrainian …