The National Armed Forces of Latvia (NAF) have noticed the presence of Russian naval ships near Latvian territorial waters on several occasions over the last few days, Rosbalt reported, with reference to the NAF’s Twitter account.

On Monday, the Russian Frigate Boikiy was seen near the Latvian economic zone, and on Sunday a NATO patrol aircraft spotted a Russian Il-76 cargo plane near the border.

Also on Sunday, Russian ships Boikiy, Bira, Irgiz, Alpinist, and Zhigulevsk GS-19 were spotted. …

The Russian Minister Industry and Trade, Denis Manturov, said that his department is ready to meet with the Ukrainian company Antonov in order to discuss purchasing a license to manufacture the An-140 aircraft in Russia, RBC-Ukraine reported.

At a government meeting, Manturov explained that the Aviacor plant in Samara continues to deliver An-140 aircraft to the Russian Defense Ministry. The aircraft were assembled from left over parts at the plant, as the supply of new parts was discontinued …

The Ministry of Defense of Poland has begun discussing plans to acquire new surveillance and maritime patrol aircraft for use in the Baltic Sea, Evropeyskaya Pravda reported with reference to Defense News.

The Ministry plans to purchase three surveillance aircraft by 2023, and three maritime patrol aircraft by 2030.

Meanwhile, it is unclear whether the current government will continue the plan of the previous Cabinet of Ministers to allocate additional funds for the overhaul and modernization …

On Thursday, May 12, the Chairman of the Automobile Manufacturers Committee of the Association of European Businesses (AEB) stated that auto sales in Russia fell to the lowest level in the last ten years. This applies to both March and April and to the cumulative result for the first four months of 2016.  Overall in Russia, since the beginning of the year, 440,600 cars have been sold; a 15% decrease from the same period last year.

The largest drop was in the brands Datsun and Honda, with 56% …

Authorities of the occupied peninsula are waiting for tourists from China for the 2016 holiday season.

The occupational authorities of the Crimea hope that they will be able to surprise tourists from China during the holiday season and compensate for the shortage of vacationers, according to the head of the Crimean Parliament Committee for Health Resorts and Tourism, Alexey Chernyak.

"The first group of more than 20 people visited Sevastopol on May 9th. We are already receiving pre-orders for …

Russia may refuse to participate in the next Eurovision contest which will he be held in Ukraine next year.

Franz Klintsevitch, First Deputy Head of the United Russia faction of the Russian Parliament, made these remarks while speaking to Russian journalists.

"It wasn't Ukrainian singer Jamala with her 1944 song who won the Eurovision-2016 contest but rather politics took the upper hand over art. And this is the first time it happened so obviously. Next year Eurovision will be held in Kiev …

German sports functionaries have called for Russia be barred from participating in the summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in connection with the expanding scandal around the use of doping in Russian sports, DW reports.

"This is a very serious accusation. If stimulants are used in Russia so systematically, then the Russian team shouldn't go to the summer games in Rio,” said Clemens Prokop, the president of the German Athletics Association.

The CEO of the German Olympic Sports Confederation, …

American Senators proposed to allocate $500 million for assistance to Ukraine, including allocation of funds on lethal weapons.

According to the information released on the website of the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John McCain, the U.S. Senate proposes to provide $500 million for assistance to Ukraine, including allocation of funds for lethal weapons in the draft budget for 2017. On the 13th of May, Senators announced the completion of work on the draft budget of the U.S. …