On Tuesday, February 23rd, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg began to consider a claim by Rosneft against the British authorities. The Russian state company claims that London has interpreted the EU sanctions too broadly, as reported by Deutsche Welle.

The Court of Justice will consider the legality of the sanctions imposed against Russia in 2014. The Court will clarify the meaning of certain concepts contained in the EU sanctions regulations. According to Rosneft,  the United …

The freedom of the Russian media “was severely restricted” in 2015, according to an Amnesty International human rights report entitled “Human Rights in the Contemporary World”.  The Russian presentation of the report was held in Moscow in the Rosbalt Media Center.

According to Sergey Nikitin, the Director of the organization in Russia, the number of independent media sources in Russia “can probably be counted on one hand”.

“With regard to the freedom of the media, it is no secret that it has …

Russia intends to request US permission to conduct observation flights over the United States.  They hope to do this with the use of aircraft which will be equipped with powerful digital cameras.  American intelligence and military sources have warned that such flights will help Moscow gather intelligence about the United States.

Russia and the US have both signed the Treaty on Open Skies, which allows making observation flights with aircraft with no weapons over the territories of all 34 …

In an open letter to the leaders of PARNAS and the Yabloko Party, prominent Russian public figures, human rights activists, and scholars called on the two parties to unite in the forthcoming State Duma elections. The activists published a second appeal to the general public, calling on them to support such cooperation. Both were published together in Novaya Gazeta on Tuesday, February 23rd.

The authors expressed alarm over the impending chaos in Russia due to the current political …

The Tartu District Court in Estonia has convicted three people for crimes against the state.  The Public Prosecutor’s office reported that all three convicts “illegally cooperated with Russian intelligence services”.

According to Interfax, two sentences were passed in October 2015 and the third one was passed last week.

In February, Maxim Gruzdev, a 32-year-old Estonian citizen, was sentenced to four years in prison.  He was recruited in the second half of 2013 in the Pskov region.  Before he …

Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili will visit Baku in March. According to the press service of the State Committee for Work with the Diaspora (GKRD) of Azerbaijan, the Georgian President will attend the fourth Global Baku Forum, organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center.

The forum, entitled “Towards a Multipolar World”, will take place on March 10th and 11th.  Discussion in Baku will be center around the role of interreligious dialogue in conflict prevention, migration, …

The Governor of Odessa, Mikhail Saakashvili, stated that his ambitions in Ukraine are not limited to the post of Prime Minister.

According to the politician, his goal is “to establish new rules of the game and to involve a new generation of the political elite.” He also noted in an interview with the Rustavi 2 channel in Georgia that Ukraine is now exploring the same path as Georgia had before the Rose Revolution.

Saakashvili also noted that he would begin to be more active and start meeting …

According to intelligence reports, on the 19th of February, nine servicemen of the Gorlovka 3rd separate motorized rifle brigade submitted resignation requests, stating that they would "return to Russia". The Defense Intelligence asserted that with regard to mass resignations, the staffing of personnel in the brigade subdivisions must not exceed 50%.  In addition, in the Novoazovsk 9th separate motorized rifle regiment reported that resignation requests were issued by almost all junior …