Georgia has high hopes for closer economic cooperation with Iran after international sanctions were lifted. Recently, Tbilisi abolished the visa regime with Iran, hoping to increase the flow of tourists from the south. Up until September 2014, tourists from Iran were bringing approximately 100 million dollars a year into Georgia.

Soon Georgia will also import Iranian gas, and a preliminary agreement was reached during a visit to Tehran with the Georgian Energy Minister, Kakha Kaladze.

Iran …

On February 21st, Polish TV Channel TVN24 broadcasted the controversial documentary film The Masks of the Revolution during the program Eva Evart Advises. The director of the film is French journalist Paul Moreira. This documentary film depicts  the events in the Kiev Euromaidan movement as a riot started by radical nationalists. The film is full of allusions to the leading role of the US in the events in Kiev two years ago. It hints at the fact that the Russian annexation of Crimea was …

Mikhail Saakashvili may be dismissed from his post as the Governor of Ukraine's Odessa Oblast (region) at the beginning of March, as reported by hromadske.tv.  The possibility of his resignation was also made by the Acting Deputy, Alexander Borovik.

“We are seriously concerned by the political crisis gaining momentum in the country.  We express our criticisms and ask difficult questions, even to the Prime Minister and to the President.  This could cause a severe reaction on their part,” …

Journalist, scholar and political analyst Andrei Piontkovsky has fled Russia, fearing possible criminal prosecution. The Russian Prosecutor's Office claims it has found signs of extremism in his article for Ekho Moskvii, his lawyer, Mark Feygin, said.

Earlier ,on February 19th, it became known that the Prosecutor General's Office found signs of extremism in Piontkovsky's article, "The bomb, ready to explode." In this article, which was published on the 23rd of January, the author addressed the …

A high-alert warning was issued due to the threat of water scarcity in the east of Crimea, according to a decree of the Head of Crimea, Sergey Aksenov.  

“The alert was issued in the Republic of Crimea and detailed the increased readiness of the governing bodies and forces of the territorial subsystem in the prevention and liquidation of emergency situations.  This is due to the threat of natural disasters which require a response on a regional level,” this was stated in Aksenov’s order.

The …

One of the results of the negotiations of the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk was the cessation of the torture of the Ukrainian soldiers held in captivity in the Donbass region.  This was stated by the Commissioner of the President of Ukraine, Irina Herashchenko.

Herashchenko said that these prisoners, who are held captive by members of the so-called People's Republics in the Donbas, have stopped being tortured.  According to her, this was due to the negotiations in Minsk.

She said that the …

Authorities in Moscow have evicted the Center for Adaption and Training of Refugee Children after its managing committee was deemed to be a “foreign agent”, as reported by Radio Svoboda.

The Center is a project of the non-governmental organization Civil Assistance Committee. When the center’s director, Olga Nikolaenko, arrived at work on Thursday, she found that employees of the city’s property department were barring the center’s workers from entering the building.

“The front door to the …

There will be a continued depreciation of the national currency in Ukraine, and the exchange rate may reach 30-35 UAH to the US dollar, as stated by economist, Elena Slezko, in her commentary for GolosUA.  She also stated that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) plays a considerable role in this situation.

“Everything depends on the government’s actions and how long the IMF will delay the next tranche as we are very dependent on that money,” she noted.  “All developing economies use a number …