• Ukrainian President intends to prevent Russia from inspecting ships in the Azov Sea

    Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced his country’s plans to challenge the actions of Russian border guards who are inspecting ships in transit to Ukrainian ports.    “We are now faced with the question of how we will strengthen the protection from the sea,” the presidential press-service quotes Poroshenko. “We will not tolerate the illegal capture of Ukrainian and foreign ships moving toward Ukrainian ports, including Mariupol.”   Poroshenko said that he gave the appropriate orders to …

  • Putin closes research site where Novichok nerve agent was developed

    Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to close the research site of Shihany in Russian Saratov region, news.rambler.ru news outlet reports. The corresponding decree was published on the Russian government’s website of legal information.

    According to the decree, the site will cease to exist after January 1, 2019. The Cabinet of Ministers of Russia and the Government of the Saratov region are responsible for closing the site.

    According to the British newspaper the Times, the nerve agent …

  • Herashchenko: Putin’s statements about ‘referendum’ in Crimea should be used in court

    The first vice-speaker of the Verkhovna Rada and representative of Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup of the Tripartite Contact group for Donbas, Iryna Herashchenko,  stated that Ukrainian diplomats and lawyers must use the statement of Russian President Vladimir Putin about Moscow’s organization of the so-called referendum in the Crimea, for the lawsuits in international courts.

    “The most important thing that was said at the press conference (Russian President Vladimir Putin and President …

  • Putin says he discussed new ideas on settlement in Ukraine with Trump

    In an interview with Russian Channel One Russia (Perviy Kanal), Russian President Vladimir Putin said that, during the meeting in Helsinki, he discussed with the American President, Donald Trump, new ideas on the settlement of the situation in Ukraine. Putin told this in an interview to the Russian "first channel".

    "We spoke about Ukraine. There are some new ideas on how to resolve the crisis in the southeast of the country. We agreed to work this out at the expert level. In my opinion, this …

  • Russian intelligence gets hold of confidential OSCE Special Monitoring Mission information

    Internal documents belonging to OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) observers have found their way into the hands of Russia’s FSB, according to an investigation by the ARD Fakt program.The documents in question are reports on events in the occupied Donbas territories, as well as communication data pertaining to the SMM Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug.

    There is also a mini-file on mission members describing their character traits, alcohol consumption habits, financial standings, preferred …

  • Russia wants to question former US ambassador on Browder case

    Alexander Kurennoi, official spokesperson of Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office, said that Moscow would like to question certain US officials and intelligence officers as part of the case against Hermitage Capital founder William Browder, RIA Novosti reports.

    Kurennoi mentioned several names: Homeland Security Department official Todd Hyman, CIA agent Jim Rote, former deputy intelligence agency director Robert Otto, former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, Jonathan Wiener – a former …

  • EU calls on Russia to admit responsibility for downing MH17 flight

    Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, has taken Russia to task for the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over the Donetsk province of Ukraine on July 17, 2014, Deutsche Welle reports.

    She recalled that in its “independent, professional and unbiased investigation”, the Joint Investigative Team (JIT) reached the conclusion that the Buk missile system which was used to shoot down flight MH17 undoubtedly belonged to the Russian Armed Forces. …

  • Putin's special envoy to inform Iran about talks with USA

    According to RBC news agency, the Special Representative of the President of Russia for Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev will visit Tehran on July 18 to inform the Iranian leadership about the results of the Russian-American meeting and to coordinate possible joint actions based on the agreements reached in Helsinki. Lavrentiev himself was present at the talks in Helsinki.

    The meeting of the Russian Presidents, Vladimir Putin, and the American President, Donald Trump, took place on July 16 in …

  • France closes its trade and investment office in Russia

    On Monday, July 16, France closed its trade and investment representative office in Russia, publishing an announcement in the communiqué of the French Embassy in Russia, which was released on the same day. The decision to close the office was taken following a notification from Russian authorities stating that from now on, Business France is no longer allowed to work in Russia under the provisions of French law. The trade mission of France provided support for the activities of Business France …

  • Russia to adopt law on zero tax for oligarchs

    The State Duma budget and taxes committee has recommended the adoption in the first reading of a bill to create offshore zones in Russia with a special tax regime for the international holding companies through which the wealthiest Russians control the economy’s key assets.It follows from the bill, as cited by TASS, that within the special administrative zones on the Oktyabrsky and Russky islands in the Kaliningrad province and Pimorsky Krai, which are designed to replace the western offshore …