The revenues of the Federal Budget of the Russian Federation will drop to a 20-year low in 2019. On Monday, September 5, 2016 the Russian daily Vedomosti made the announcement, quoting the forecast of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, which projected that revenues will be reduced to 13.3% of the Gross Domestic Product for three years. The last time the actual figure was below forecast was in 1999.

The Ministry predicted these results on the basis of oil priced at 4 …

The Chinese company Aerospace Industry Corporation of China (AICC), which has become party to the agreement with the Ukrainian state enterprise Antonov, is unable to produce planes of this level. Investigative journalists from the Chinese newspaper Toutiao reported on AICC’s viability.

Toutiao claims that according to the documents this Chinese company looks more like a fictitious firm than a large-scale enterprise. According to them, Aerospace Industry Corporation of China was registered in …

Ukraine does not approve of the Draft Constitutional amendments regarding the decentralization of the Donbas region, including the regulations on granting special orders to the local government without the implementation of a number of points in the Minsk Agreements that provide for a cease fire and the de-escalation of the armed conflict in the region, as was stated by the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, in his annual address to the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian Parliament).

"The …

The President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Pedro Agramunt, who arrived in Moscow on an official visit, noted the poor state of relations between PACE and the Russian State Duma.

“The fact that the Russian Parliament decided not to appoint a delegation for the session of the Assembly and the fact that the voice of the MPs from one of our member states is no longer present in PACE is an exceptional situation,” RIA Novosti quoted the president of PACE on …

Russian military forces continue to arrive in the territories of the Donbas that are not controlled by Kiev. This, as Interfax-Ukraine reports, was stated by the Ukrainian Vice-Prime Minister on European and Euro-Atlantic integration, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze.

"Russian soldiers are arriving in the Donbas by turns, on a rotational basis, in small groups from among the personnel of their brigades and divisions. They mainly occupy the positions in the second and third lines of defense and in …

As was stated by the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, NATO membership remains a strategic goal and provides guidelines for Ukraine.

On Tuesday, while addressing the members of Parliament at the opening of the autumn session, Poroshenko noted that Kyiv managed to achieve an unprecedented level of cooperation with NATO countries.

Poroshenko stressed that Ukraine will increase, extend, and deepen cooperation with NATO until it fully meets the criteria for membership in the North Atlantic …

Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his associates may have been involved in the theft of nearly $7.5 billion in state funds. This, according to the Ukrayinska Pravda newspaper, was stated in the report by the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine.

“According to these materials (for the entire period of investigation), the amount of financial transactions that may be related to the legalization of proceeds from criminal activity and may be also associated with other crimes, …

On September 6th, RIA Novosti reported that the U.S. had lifted sanctions against Rosoboronexport contracts regarding the maintenance of Mi-17 helicopters in Afghanistan. Deputy Director General of Rosoboronexport Sergey Goreslavsky said in an interview with RIA Novosti that "the decision was made for two years, but if necessary, may be extended by the Americans." Those restrictions were imposed on September 2nd last year but had been partially lifted on November 25th.

The Director of …