• Japan denies that they proposed allowing Russia to manage the Kuril Islands

    The Japanese Foreign Ministry denied information that Tokyo intended to propose that Moscow and Tokyo manage the four Islands of Kuril Ridge together. "We deny the report of the newspaper Nikkei that Japan and Russia are discussing the joint management of the northern territories,” stated the representative of Japanese Foreign Minister Yasuhisa Kawamura, Reuters reported on Monday, October 17th.

    "A fundamental position of Japan is that Japan will sign a peace agreement with Russia on the issue …

  • Estonian PM: Russia's actions in Europe are acts of war

    According to Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas, Russia’s actions in Europe can be regarded as acts of war, Postimees reported.

    "Our eastern neighbor [Russia] uses both conventional and hybrid methods [of war]… [through] interventions via cyber-attacks in presidential elections, the financing of extremist parties in Europe … spreading propaganda and lies,” Rõivas stated.

    The Estonian Prime Minister compared Russia to a schoolyard bully who is looking for conflicts wherever they can be found. …

  • Lithuanian court to summon Gorbachev over events in 1991

    The Vilnius city district court hearing the case of events on 13 January 1991 decided to examine the former Soviet statesman Mikhail Gorbachev. It was confirmed by the Baltic News Service (BNS) participating in the court hearings and Robertas Povilaitis, the son of Apolinaras Povilaitis who was one of the casualties in the bloody January incident. In 1991, in Vilnius, 14 civilians were killed near the Press House, Radio and Television Committee building and the TV Tower.

    Povilaitis earlier …

  • Separatist commander Givi promised to avenge death of Motorola

    One of the commanders of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Mikhail Tolstykh, known by the call sign ‘Givi,’ vowed to level the cities of Ukraine to the ground in retaliation for the death of his comrade, Arsen Pavlov (call sign ‘Motorola’). He stated this in an interview with Russian NewsFront portal.

    “Whoever did this, they will pay. The whole of Ukraine will pay. Each city besides Donetsk People’s Republic, that we will continue to capture, I will level to the ground for this …

  • U.S. Navy ship entered the Black Sea

    On Monday, October 17, 2016, the USS Mount Whitney command ship of the US Navy entered the Romanian port of Constanta. According to Pentagon the pupose of the visit was to "strengthen the NATO cooperation in the Black Sea".

    "Strengthening alliances through port visits such as this reinforces the shared commitment to promote safety and stability within the region, while seeking opportunities to enhance interoperability with NATO allies and partners.," the statement of the U.S. Department of …

  • EU demands Syrian war crimes be brought before ICC

    At the EU Council meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the EU member countries the EU representatives have reached the conclusion that Syrian troops and the Russian Aerospace Forces are responsible for targeted airstrikes on schools, hospitals and other social facilities in Aleppo.

    The EU condemned these actions in the Syrian city in a joint statement issued at the meeting.

    The statement said that hospitals and schools have become the targets of airstrikes. The EU went on to say …

  • Russian Foreign Ministry: Moscow will respond to U.S. sanctions

    The possibility of U.S. sanctions against Russia due to the situation in Syria will not go without a response. The response may be symmetrical, the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, Sergei Ryabkov, told reporters. "Any hostile actions against Russia will not be left without a response," Ryabkov said, as quoted by Interfax.

    Ryabkov also said that "at different stages of the current sanctions policy (against Russia) Moscow has repeatedly warned that they will be answered though …

  • Zakharchenko accuses Ukraine's Security Service of assassinating Motorola

    The head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Alexander Zakharchenko, said that it was the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) that organized the assassination of Arseny Pavlov—call sign “Motorola”—one of the separatist military leaders, vesti.ru reports.

    "Today I can state the following: this operation was worked out by the Ukrainian Security Service. I would even say that this is terrorism on a national scale,” Zakharchenko emphasized. According to him, an investigation of …

  • NATO Silver Arrow 2016 military drills began in Latvia

    The Silver Arrow-2016 international military drills began in Latvia on Monday. This was reported on the website of the Latvian Ministry of Defense.

    The drills will continue until the 31st of October at a training ground in Ādaži. Over 3,000 servicemen from the NATO member countries of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Albania, the US, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Romania are participating in these drills.

    “The purpose of these drills is to improve cooperation between the National …

  • Russian warships approached Latvia’s borders again

    The Armed Forces of Latvia have again discovered Russian warships near the country’s borders.

    The National Armed Forces of Latvia reported this on Twitter.

    Ships were recorded twice during the day on Sunday.

    “In the Latvian exclusive economic zone, at a distance of 11 nautical miles from the border, on October 16, Parchim-class corvette Kazanets from the Armed Forces of Russia has been identified,” the statement says.

    In addition, at a distance of eight nautical miles from the territorial …