US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have spoken over the phone about the upcoming UN-sponsored Syrian peace talks in Geneva. The talks will be the largest effort yet to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian Civil War that has raged for almost 5 years.

Kerry’s call to Lavrov comes three days after a face-to-face meeting between the two in Zurich, following which a joint statement was released saying "particular attention was given to the need to form a …

In 2012, the Russian State Duma adopted a law requiring all nongovernmental organizations engaged in political activity that receive funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents” with the Ministry of Justice, a designation that severely hinders an NGO's ability to operate in the Russian Federation. While the law initially provided a vague definition of "political activity", the Ministry of Justice adopted a new amendment on Friday defining it as any work in the sphere of federal or …

The United States reported that during a meeting on Wednesday, January 20th, Vice President Joe Biden and the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko discussed the need for Ukraine to continue its fight against corruption. According to the White House this was agreed upon by both leaders.They also agreed on the importance of the continuation of compliance with the Minsk Agreements by all participants of the conflict in Ukraine, the brief statement said.The Press Service of the President of …

According to ZN.ua, the U.S. State Department will consider Ukrainian Prosecutor General Shokin’s dismissal as clear support for the fight against corruption in Ukraine, as well as a main condition for a $1 billion loan to Ukraine.

This was revealed during the visit to the USA of Deputy Prosecutor General David Sakvarelidze, the Director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau Artem Sytnik and anti-corruption Prosecutor Nazar Kholodnitskyi. Ukrainian officials are in the US on a working visit now, where …

The Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine, Andriy Pyvovarsky, announced on January 21st the completion of the first phase of the new double track Beskidian tunnel construction running from Beskid to Skotarske in the Carpathians. A celebration marking the completion of the first phase was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Gennady Zubko, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Mykola Snitko and the acting President of PJSC "Ukrainian Railways" Alexander Zavgorodniy.

The most difficult part of the work …

The Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, stated that Ukraine and Turkey have a unique opportunity to pool political, diplomatic, military, technical and economic resources for an effective and coordinated response to the destruction of the balance of forces in the Black Sea region.

On January 21st, Turchynov met with the Secretary General of the National Security Council of Turkey, Seyfullah Hacimuftuoglu. “The development of bilateral …

The Russian bank Sberbank believes that Russia will see a recession and that  inflation may exceed 8% this year, as reported by TASS, citing the head of the Center for Macroeconomic Research of Sberbank, Yulia Tsepliaeva. According to her, a decline in consumption and economic growth may also be expected.

“We expect an economic slowdown and an additional year of decline in consumption. Inflation is likely to be high. It is expected to exceed 8%,” Tsepliaeva said.

Tsepliaeva assesses the Bank’ …

The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, expects that in February 2016, Ukraine will receive the next loan installment from the IMF, as reported by Bloomberg, following a meeting in Davos with the Managing Director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde.

According to Poroshenko, an agreement was reached on the allocation of the next installment of the loan to Ukraine. "We have reached a compromise on the budget deficit and the macro indicators, relative to all," the President assured.

Poroshenko …