• Estonia considers expelling Russian diplomats because of 'Skripal case'

    The Prime Minister of Estonia, Jüri Ratas, canceled his trip to Russia as part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Estonia’s independence. According to the Estonian Foreign Ministry,the decision was made after negotiations in Brussels, RBC news agency reports.

    “I decided not to visit Russia in May where I planned participate in activities devoted to the 100th anniversary of Estonia,” the press service of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign affairs quoted the Minister as saying. …

  • Human rights activists: Russia used napalm bombs during air strikes in Syria

    Human rights activists accuse the Russian air force of bombing the Syrian city of Arbin, killing 37 civilians, Deutsche Welle reports.

    According to a twitter post by the Syrian humanitarian organization White Helmets on Friday, March 23, napalm bombs were used during the attack. The majority of victims were women and children, the activists noted.

    The White Helmets have repeatedly reported in recent days on the bombings committed by Russian aircraft in the Idlib area.

    The Syrian Observatory …

  • Mother of Ukrainian soldier captured in Donbas: Prisoners taken to Russia as laborers

    Many Ukrainians who were captured in the Donbas have been taken to Russia, where they are used as laborers, claims Yadviga Lozinskaya, mother of the missing soldier Andrei Lozinskiy, Gordon writes.

    According to Lozinskaya, her 24 year-old son went missing in 2014 after the Illovaisk battles. Since then she has conducted the search for him herself.

    The last time Andrei phoned his mother was on September 5, 2014, from someone else’s phone. He told her he had been captured. Lozinskaya traveled …

  • Media: GPS navigation stopped working off the Syrian coast

    Aircraft navigational systems and global positioning systems have stopped showing the correct location of aircraft on approach to Syria in the Eastern Mediterranean, reports Vzglyad.ru, referring to the Cyprus media. Civil aviation authorities of Cyprus and Turkey issued an emergency NOTAM or Notice to Airmen that noted the interruption of GPS signals in Mediterranean area.

    The exact reason for the malfunctions is yet unknown. It is possible that electronic systems from military operations in …

  • Russian expert: Russian Army is no match for American military power

    A Doctor of Military Sciences, and the Deputy President of the Russian Academy of Missile and Artillery Sciences, first rank captain Konstantin Sivkov, compared the capabilities of Russia's and the US’s sea, air, and land forces. The article written by the expert was published by the Military Industrial Courier newspaper.

    "In terms of aircraft carriers, the American fleet is 12 times more powerful than the Russian one (Kuznetsov aircraft carrier is only half as powerful as its American …

  • Poroshenko thanks Trump for financial assistance to Ukraine

    In a post on his Facebook page, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that he believes that an increase in spending on Ukraine's support in the US budget for 2018 is a "powerful and timely signal" and a real practical help to strengthen the defense potential of the country. "I am grateful to President Donald Trump and the US Congress for supporting the budget bill, which provides for an increase in spending on Ukraine's support in 2018, confirming the United States' leading role in …

  • Russia makes company of Ukrainian fugitive oligarch Kurchenko sole coal supplier from DPR and LPR

    Russia has named Gaz-Alyans, a company controlled by Sergei Kurchenko, its sole supplier of coal from the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), RBC news agency writes.

    RBC cites “DPR people’s council deputy” Vladislav Brig, a source in the management of the coal company Rovenkianthracite, and the appeals of Russian coal traders who previously traded coal from the DPR and LPR.

    The document states that on March 14, 2018, the Russian Ministry of Economic Development sent a …

  • Russia to dispose of Topol ballistic missiles

    Russian state-owned corporation Roscosmos has posted an online public procurement application for the disposal of nine intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) Topol RS- 12M. The maximum contract price is 9.78 million rubles ($170,000 USD).

    Lot includes the disposal of the missile parts, sale of the obtained materials and disposal of illiquid waste. The contractor must have a valid license for the dismantling of military equipment, the Russian Armed Forces security clearance with access to …

  • Russian Ministry of Defense says Russia has additional new weapons that were not mentioned by Putin

    Deputy Defense Minister Yuriy Borisov said on Russia-1 TV that the Russian Army has access to many latest weapons systems though they have not been revealed yet.

    "The Supreme Commander-in-Chief does not disclose everything that we have in our arsenal. It is necessary to correctly evaluate the performance of our Supreme Commander-in-Chief [Putin] and determine correctly the goal setting. The announcement and publication of these new weapons systems was not aimed at saber rattling or the …

  • Latvian Parliament passes bill prohibiting high schools from teaching in languages of national minorities

    The amendments to the Latvian Law on Education, involving the abolition of bilingual education in schools, have undergone the third and final reading in the Saeima or Latvian Parliament.

    According to Delfi news portal, 58 deputies voted in favor of the bill while 18 voted against it. It must now be approved by the President.

    The plans of the Ministry of Education and Science indicated that transferring to a new model of education will begin in the 2019-2020 academic year and will be completed …