The construction of the South Stream Pipeline remains suspended, as reported by Bulgarian National Radio based on Russian sources. Earlier the Standard, a Bulgarian newspaper, stated that the construction of the South Stream Pipeline may resume in the next few weeks. They reported that their sources stated that the delay is due to the deterioration of Russian-Turkish relations and the refusal of the Turkish Stream project which was discussed as an alternative to the South Stream.

On Monday, a …

Russia decided not to renew contract negotiations on the supply of electricity from Russia to Ukraine after its refusal to buy Ukrainian electricity for Crimea. According to the newspaper Kommersant, “Russia will stop commercial energy supplies to Ukraine. The contract will not be renewed in its last year.”

The Russian Federation’s Ministry of Energy stated that “Russia does not negotiate about the supply of electricity from Russia to Ukraine. We will not renew the present agreement, as …

On January 18th, at the meeting of the Committee of Foreign Affairs, the Council of the European Union will discuss the situation in Ukraine, reported the Council's press service. A discussion on the current situation in Syria and Iraq will also be on the agenda.

At the end of last year, the leaders of the "Normandy Four" (Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France) held talks over the phone and agreed to extend the validity of the Minsk Agreements into 2016. They also arranged another meeting of …

Finland’s national public-broadcasting company, Yle, cited the Lapland border service, who predicted that in the year 2016 about 7,500 refugees could enter Finland through the border with Russia. This forecast was made based on the current rate of arrival of asylum-seekers.

Since the beginning of the year around 200 refugees crossed the Finnish-Russian border through the checkpoints Salla and Raja-Jooseppi. Most of the refugees were Iraqis, Afghans, Nepalese and Syrians. Last year 700 …

Petro Poroshenko’s ratings as the current President of Ukraine will become critically low in the summer and autumn of 2016, according to one political analyst. As a result, he will be unable to hold on to his office.

This forecast was made by Ruslan Bortnik, the head of the Ukrainian Institute for Analysis and Management of Politics, during the press conference with the news agency GolosUA.

“Our president has only a year left. The same prediction has been made by his allies and the members of …

After meeting with one of the coordinators for the Syrian opposition, Rayad Farid Hijab, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Laurent Fabius, told reporters that Syria and Russia must halt military operations against civilians. According to the Minister they have discussed the absolute need to halt military actions which Russian and Syrian Government forces are taking against civilians. Fabius specified that the discussion was focused on the small Syrian town of …

Poland will become part of the NATO Response Force within four years. The Polish Vice-Minister, Tomasz Szatkowski, reported that the Polish Ministry of Defense has already been preparing for this duty.

“Our contribution to the framework will consist of five battalions. As a framework state, we want to invite our partners from the Visegrad Group to join this effort. There has been a prior agreement that part of these forces will be under the flag of Visegrad," the Vice-Minister, Tomasz …

Ukrnafta has filed a lawsuit against Russia with the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, the Netherlands. The details of the lawsuit aren’t known. It was noted on the PCA website that the proceeding was initiated in accordance with an Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, signed by the Russian Federation and Ukraine in 1998.

Moreover, according to the PCA database, eleven more Ukrainian companies (Stabil, Rubenor, Rustel, Kirovohrad-Nafta, Krym-Petrol, Pirsan, Trade- …