The Supreme Allied Commander of Europe and the Commander of the United States European Command, U.S. Army General Curtis Scaparrotti said that Russia may be helping the Islamist Taliban in Afghanistan, which is fighting against the U.S.-backed government.

At a hearing in the Senate Committee on Defense Forces, he said he saw evidence that Russia was stepping up efforts to influence the Taliban and, according to him, "perhaps even supply” this group, Radio Liberty reported. The general did not …

Russia’s TASS news agency reported that a snap check of combat readiness began on March 23rd in the Kantemirovskaya tank division in the Moscow region, where more than 1,000 servicemen are taking part. This was reported by the press service of the Western Military District.

"On March 23, a number of units of the Kantemirovskaya Tank Division of the Western Military District were brought to the highest degree of combat readiness. More than 1,000 servicemen and about 300 combat and special …

The Turkish Foreign Ministry told Sergey Panov, Russia’s charge d’affaires to the Foreign Ministry, of its “serious concern” over the death of a Turkish soldier as a result of shooting from the territory of Syria.

This was stated by Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu, as reported by TASS.

“Yesterday, our soldier was killed as a result of the actions of a sniper. The shooting came from the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, where Russia is responsible for enforcing the …

During the night of March 23 in a military depot in the city of Balakliia, located 95 km from the city of Kharkiv, a fire occurred which caused the detonation of ammunition. The warehouse area is 680 hectares. Ammunition was delivered from the depot to the war zone in the east of Ukraine. There are no casualties among the military and civilian population, but a 54-year-old woman received shrapnel wounds.

The fire occurred at several sites where artillery shells of 125 and 152 mm caliber were …

Denis Voronenkov, former deputy of the Russian State Duma, was killed in the center of Kyiv on March 23. He moved to Kyiv in October 2016, when he gave evidence in the case of high treason against former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. In December 2016, Voronenkov received Ukrainian citizenship.

The killer shot Voronenkov while he was leaving the Premier Palace Hotel with a bodyguard. The former deputy died on site from his wounds. The bodyguard has been hospitalized (according to Yuriy …

Author: Dmytro Snegiryov, Head of Prava Sprava public initiative.

On March 10th, the press office of the Ministry of State Security (MSS) of the Luhansk People’s Republic (MSS LPR) released a video recording of the interrogation of military scouts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Ukrainian captives said on camera that law enforcement agencies in Ukraine as well as soldiers are engaged in subversive activities in the temporarily annexed territories.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) …

Dmitry Peskov called untrue reports that French presidential candidate Francois Fillon organized a meeting for Lebanese billionaire Fouad Makhzoumi and Total CEO Patrick Puyanne with Russian President Vladimir Putin for a fee. Interfax reported on this.

Earlier, the media wrote that Fouad Makhzoumi, a Lebanese businessman, paid Francois Fillon $50 thousand for organizing a meeting with Putin and the CEO of French oil giant Total.

"We saw these media reports. To be honest, they remind us of …

On March 22nd, the Russian Parliament in the annexed Crimea approved amendments to the budget for 2017 which will reduce the revenues and expenditures of the peninsula’s budget by 1.55 billion rubles (27 million USD). The budget bill was published on the official website of the Crimean Parliament.

As reported by Kryminform, the Minister of Finance of the peninsula, Irina Kiviko, said during a committee meeting that "this amount is approved, less the receipts under the federal target program." …