• Ukrainian border guards seized foreign vessel for entering Crimea

    Border guards of the Odessa naval defense squad arrested a foreign vessel violator which entered the closed Crimean ports, the press service of the Ukrainian Border Guard Service (SBGS) announced on August 1.

    The SAN PORFYRIOS motor ship was stopped by border guards in the Ukrainian waters of the Danube on its way from Romania to Greece. According to preliminary information, a vessel named Sava Lake (Panama Flag) with the same IMO (unique ship identification number) as that on the SAN …

  • Russian Deputy Prime Minister Rogozin deletes tweets on conflict with Romanian authorities

    Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin deleted all the tweets about his conflict with the Romanian authorities, who denied airspace access to a plane with him on board on July 28, Meduza website reports.

    Rogozin, who is under EU sanctions, intended to fly to Chișinău to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the peacekeeping operation in Transnistria. He was invited by the Moldovan president.

    Before the trip, the Russian official was warned that he should fly in a commercial, not a military …

  • U.S. Embassy in Russia removes its belongings from confiscated summer house

    Workers at the U.S. Embassy in Russia have vacated the summer house in Serebryany Bor and the warehouse on Dorognaya Street, Interfax reports.

    “The U.S. Embassy in Russia was able to gain access to the summer house for the diplomats in Serebryany Bor. We removed the remaining furniture, kitchen utensils and barbecue facilities, as well as equipment for the children's playground,” said press secretary of the diplomatic mission Maria Olson.

    Also, American diplomats managed to take all the …

  • Outflow of capital from Russian funds has reached $2 billion over the past five month

    The capital outflow from Russian stock oriented funds in July 2017 amounted to $300 million for a total of $2 billion over a period of five months. The data was provided in a survey by Emerging Portfolio Fund Research (EPFR), an organization that tracks the inflow and outflow of capital to investment funds and the distribution of capital.

    The outflow of funds in July is comparable to the June figures when the outflow was recorded at $385 million. Net outflow of funds was recorded for five …

  • Media: Siemens banned Iranian company from supplying turbines to Crimea

    The German company Siemens has forbidden the Iranian company Mapna to supply gas turbines to the Russian-occupied Crimea. Three sources close to Siemens, Rostec and the Russian government reported the information to RBC.

    According to them, by autumn 2016, Siemens began delaying the equipment delivery after the media had reported information on the turbines’ supply to the Crimea bypassing the sanctions. In this regard, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the government and Rostec to find …

  • Kyiv: Russian law on granting citizenship to Ukrainians infringes on their rights

    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine urged citizens of Ukraine not to succumb to provocations by the Russian Federation to simplify the acquisition of Russian citizenship.

    The Foreign Ministry regards the Russian leadership's adoption of a law simplifying the acquisition of Russian citizenship by Ukrainian citizens as a complete disregard for international law, the Foreign Ministry said in a commentary.

    "We regard this step by the aggressor state as a continuation of legal …

  • Putin signs law on debt repayment by Crimeans to Ukrainian banks

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on the repayment of debts by residents of the annexed Crimea to Ukrainian banks.

    The corresponding document was published on the president's website on Monday, reported RIA Novosti.

    In particular, it gives the borrower the right to apply to the Deposit Protection Fund (DPF) established by the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA), with confirmation of freedom from cooperation with persons entitled to demand payment of the debt. At the same time, the …

  • The US to increase its military presence in Baltics during Russia’s Zapad-2017 military exercise

    The United States will increase the number of servicemen and military equipment in Lithuania during the time of the joint Russian and Belarusian military exercises, Zapad 2017, as stated by the President of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaitė, writes DW.

    She said that the number of US Armed Forces personnel, equipment, and vessels will be increased in Lithuania. Also, air patrol missions will double as seven US aircraft will arrive in Lithuania.

    The strategic exercises of the armed forces of the …

  • Media: Russian biker club Night Wolves denied presidential grant

    A coordinating committee for the distribution of presidential grants has rejected all three applications for a grant to pay for a project to be completed by the Night Wolves Russian motorcycle club, as reported by Kommersant.

    According to the publication, two grant applications were not submitted for consideration at all.

    The Night Wolves motorcycle organization of the Izmaylovo District in Moscow was not able to substantiate the need for the "Your Russia" project, which would create a …

  • Russian authorities do not allow American diplomats to remove their belongings from the property seized by Russia

    American diplomats in Russia could not get into the embassy house in the Serebryany Bor for two days, as stated by the US diplomatic mission, Interfax reports.

    “That's right, we were denied access, both yesterday and today,” said Maria Olson, the Press Secretary of the Embassy in response to the request to confirm the messages that US representatives cannot get into the building.

    She added that the diplomatic mission staff couldn’t get into the dacha to pick up their personal things left …