Moscow's Meshchansky District Court has fined Telegram Messenger LLP (London) in the amount of 800 thousand rubles ($13,945 USD) over the company's refusal to comply with a request by the Federal Security Service (FSB) to provide information for decoding user messages. This has been reported by Interfax.

"Telegram Messenger LLP is found guilty of committing an administrative offense, and is imposed with punishment in the form of an administrative fine of 800,000 rubles," the court said.

The …

In Moscow a press conference was held with Maksim Lapunov, the first person to speak openly about the persecution of gays in the Chechen Republic without demanding anonymity, the BBC Russian service reports.

Lapunov, a native of the Omsk province, said that he lived for two years in Chechnya. He claims that on March 16 he was arrested and held in a basement for 12 days. He has already written to the Russian Investigative Committee demanding a case be filed against the people who oppressed him. …

Russian newspaper Vedomosti has reported that Russia will receive a discount on the transfer of financial messages beginning in 2018, citing SWIFT Director for Central and Eastern Europe Matvei Gering. According to Gering, the discount will apply to financial message transfers between Russian organizations.

The newspaper notes that SWIFT operations within the country accounted for 72.5% of all operations by Russian users in the international system, according to data from 2016.

Vedemosti's …

NATO’s latest large military exercise “Silver Arrow 2017” was launched in Latvia, according to the website of Latvia’s Ministry of Defense.

Silver Arrow will be attended by servicemen from 11 allied countries, including Albania, the United States, Estonia, Italy, Canada, Latvia, Britain, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and Germany. About 3,500 people will participate.

The aim of the exercises is for the Latvian Armed Forces and the military of the allies to work out "tasks vital for the defense of …

The operation in Syria is coming to an end, and there are several issues that need urgent attention, said Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu said on Monday during a meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

“I would like to discuss each issue connected with Syria separately. The operation there is approaching its completion. There are several points that require urgent solutions, and discussions about the prospects for the further development of the situation in Syria are needed,” …

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree adopting UN Security Council Resolution 2321in Russia. The decree was published on the official portal of legal information.

“In accordance with the adopted resolution, in order to suppress the development and supply of resources to the forbidden programs in North Korea, additional international sanctions are being imposed that limit cooperation with that country in the areas of military technology, economic trade, finance, transport and education,” the …

There will be “serious legal consequences” for former head of Donald Trump’s electoral campaign Paul Manafort for “manipulating the investments” of Rusal president Oleg Deripaska. A representative of the Russian oligarch made such a comment with respect to NBC’s story on Manafort’s financial ties to Deripaska, Interfax reports.

Deripaska has business contacts “with anyone and anywhere… exclusively in the interests of his business” the businessman’s representative added.

In his opinion, NBC’s …

Ukrinform reports that World Bank President Jim Yong Kim will visit Ukraine in November, according to an announcement by the Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk at a briefing in Washington.

"I met with the Vice President of the World Bank [Cyril] Muller. This was a continuation of my meeting with the President of the World Bank in the spring when I invited him to visit Ukraine. He accepted this invitation and we are already preparing for this visit next month,” the head of the Ministry of …