Several thousands of refugees from Afghanistan, who have arrived in Germany since 2015, claim that they had contact with the Taliban or fought for the Taliban. The weekly newspaper Der Spiegel reported this on Saturday, April 22, with reference to a letter from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAM) to the German intelligence service.

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office is examining more than 70 cases, and six people are in investigative isolation, the publication specifies.

It is …

The leader of the Russian opposition political party Yabloko, Grigory Yavlinsky, called on the leadership of Russia to "fix the political error" with the Crimea and solve this issue in accordance with all the international legal norms.

Yavlinsky expressed this opinion on his blog. According to him, "the Kremlin persists and does not want to admit that a gross mistake was made [with the Crimea] that has already driven Russia into isolation, turning [Russia] into a target for sanctions."

"Over …

According to the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS) , of every 100 people in Germany considered as posing a potential threat to public security and subject to deportation, every eighth has Russian citizenship.

Since the beginning of this year, Germany has deported 13 people who posed a potential threat to public security.

According to the publication, there are about 100 such persons in Germany subject to deportation to their countries of origin. More than 30% of them are …

In the schools of Syria, Russian became the second language and many parents in the country are starting to name their children in honor of Putin. This was stated by the Syrian Ambassador to Russia, Riad Haddad.

"President Bashar al-Assad's decision to make Russian a second language in Syria is one of the elements of the gratitude of the Syrian people to the Russian people for their support. Many families even started to name their children Putin. It's not a secret that the children of the …

In 2016, NATO fighter jets were scrambled 780 times from military bases in Europe in order to visually identify and escort planes from the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS). This is a record number of such incidents since the time of the Cold War, news outlet DPA reported, citing representatives of the Ramstein US Air Force Base in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

About 90 other such flights were made on account of the military planes of other states, passenger liners or other transport aircraft, …

Interfax news agency reports, with reference to a source in Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), that an OSCE vehicle was blown up near Lunahsk.    

“According to preliminary data, the vehicle with the OSCE monitors hit a roadside bomb near the town of Prishyb in Lunahsk. The bomb was placed by unknown persons. There are casualties", the source said.

The Interfax‘s source accused the Ukrainian side of placing that bomb, stating that the bomb could have been installed "intentionally for the …

The U.S. Treasury announced that it would not make an exception for ExxonMobil, which asked for a temporary lifting of sanctions that prohibit the implementation of joint projects with Russian corporation Rosneft.

"In consultation with President Donald J. Trump, the Treasury Department will not be issuing waivers to U.S. companies, including Exxon, to authorize drilling prohibited by current Russian sanctions," Voice of America quoted Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin as saying.

Oil giant …

The U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs, Ambassador Tina Kaidanow, will visit Ukraine next week to discuss military assistance programs, the State Department said in a message.

The report says that Kaidanow will visit Germany, Estonia and Ukraine on April 23-29 to discuss a number of international security issues.

"In Estonia and Ukraine, Ambassador Kaidanow will meet with civilian and defense officials to discuss a wide range of political-military issues, …