The leader of the Belarusian National Congress and former Belarusian presidential candidate Mikola Statkevich was arrested, as reported by his wife Marina Adamovich. "Mikola was arrested today at about 12 pm, not far from home, when he was going to a meeting," she wrote on Facebook. According to the wife of the activist, he was taken to a temporary detention center on Okrestin Street in Minsk. In early August, the court sentenced Statkevich in absentia to administrative arrest for 15 days for …

Volna recreational resort that belongs to Ukrainian fugitive oligarch Dmytro Firtash will become the property of the Kremlin-controlled authorities of the Crimea in exchange for writing off the debt of the Crimean Titan plant owned by businessman, RBC news agency reports citing its sources. Volna is located on the Bakalska sandbar of the peninsula, where a youth forum Tavrida is held, which is overseen by the internal political block of the Kremlin. The recreational resort is rented by the …

Siemens is fulfilling all its obligations to the Russian energy holding company Inter RAO, there are no problems with the supply or servicing of equipment, said Inter RAO chairman Boris Kovalchuk, as reported by the Russian news outlet Prime. “There are no problems with either the equipment supply or the servicing of our equipment by our German partners, all obligations are being fulfilled,” Kovalchuk responded when asked whether Siemens had warned Inter RAO of difficulties in further work.

On …

North Korea has hired former KGB staff as advisors to ensure the security of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported with reference to an unnamed source.

According to the newspaper, around 10 former KGB employees will be consultants for Kim Jong Un’s bodyguards. It is likely that these are agents from the seventh division of the Second Chief Directorate, which was involved in counter-intelligence.

Asahi Shimbun reports that the former Russian KGB agents were …

Kurt Volker, Special Representative of the US Department of State for Ukraine, said that US Secretary of Defense James Mattis brought military equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine during his visit to Ukraine on August 23-24.

“I agree that ministers of defense don’t arrive empty handed. The defense minister (J. Mattis) brought certain defensive equipment for the Ukrainian army,” Volker said in an interview for the TV channel Pryama.

The special representative commented that the US will …

In an interview with RIA Novosti, Moldovan President Igor Dodon called the Moldovan government’s initiative to withdraw Russian forces from Transnistria “yet another anti-Russian démarche”.  

Dodon emphasized that the decision to discuss the withdrawal of Russian forces in the UN “will remain only at the level of a declaration”.

“The Moldovan government has been going in reverse for a long time, after recognizing the mistake, that the peacekeeping operation on the Dniester cannot be touched, …

The deployment of UN peacekeeping forces to the conflict zone in the Donbas was blocked by Russia, according to the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the head of the NATO mission to Ukraine, Vadym Prystaiko, Radio Liberty reports.

He stressed that the Ukrainian government is considering additional mechanisms for settling the situation in the Donbas.

"If the Minsk Agreements did not result in peace for three years, maybe there are some additional mechanisms that we must …

The Kremlin-controlled Minister of Construction and Architecture of the Crimea, Sergei Kononov, stated that there is a shortage of cement in the construction warehouses of the peninsula because of the queues at the Kerch ferry crossing, as reported by Kryminform news agency.

"Unfortunately, there was a queue for ferries coming from Kerch, of which there were more than 200 railway cars carrying cement. Novorossiysk cement, which as a rule, is transported from there, was not able enter the …