The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergei Lavrov, and the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, met in the Swiss city of Zurich for the first bilateral negotiations of the year. The meeting was a prelude to the Syrian negotiations to be held in Geneva on January 25th.

Earlier, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, said that Lavrov and Kerry would also discuss the situation in Ukraine and the implementation of the Minsk Agreements in eastern Ukraine. The issues regarding …

The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement is on the agenda of the EU Dutch Presidency, said the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

"We need this agreement. On the one hand, the agreement regulates the free trade zone. But at the same time, this agreement also addresses the stability at the borders of the European Union,” Rutte said while answering questions after the presentation of the Netherlands presidential program to the EU. …

There have been reports from the Russian Republic of Chechnya that government officials, teachers and students throughout the territory are being compelled to show support for the Chairman of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov.

The Russian online edition Znak reported that the employees of the Ministry of National Policy, External Relations, Press and Information of Chechnya and its subordinate offices there were ordered to attend a flash mob on Thursday and rally in Grozny, the Chechen …

In Moldova, supporters of the opposition parties gathered in protest at the Parliament building in Chisinau on January 20th after lawmakers voted to approve a new government headed by a new pro-European Prime Minister, Pavel Filip. According to some reports, protesters also attempted to break into the Parliament building.

On Wednesday, the Moldovan Parliament approved a new pro-European government, ending a political crisis that lasted months. 57 out of 101 deputies voted for a government …

The Speaker of the Russian State Duma, Sergey Naryshkin, invited the leading European countries to punish Kiev for their failure to comply with the Minsk Agreements, as reported by the Russian media on Tuesday, January 19th.

At the opening of the spring session of the State Duma, Naryshkin stated that "the position of France and Germany, presiding over the OSCE this year, will become completely constructive and objective.  The advocates of extending anti-Russian sanctions will realize that …

According to the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce report released on January 20th, the number of German companies, together with their branches and representative offices, was reduced by 7% in Russia last year.

According to the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation, six thousand companies with German capital were registered in Russia in 2014. However, in 2015, their number dropped to 5583, more than 400 fewer than the previous year.

Meanwhile, the number of legal entities with …

The United States Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter expressed the view that Russia is pursuing the wrong course in Syria. After meeting with the US’s key allies in Paris on January20th, Carter stated that Russians make strategic mistakes as well as tactical ones. “That’s why we don’t have a basis for greater cooperation with Moscow,” Carter noted.

The Defense Secretary promised to destroy powerful centers of Islamic State. He likened it to a cancer that will be defeated by destroying its two …

In the coming weeks, NATO hopes to resume dialogue with Russia, which was frozen because of the conflict in eastern Ukraine since July 2014. Diplomats in Brussels stated on January 20th that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization expects negotiations at the ambassadorial level within the NATO-Russia Council to take place sometime between the end of February and the beginning of March, if Moscow is amenable.

One of the diplomats said that NATO wished to put a discussion on the conflict in …