The former Prime Minister of Ukraine, Mykola Azarov, who fled Ukraine after the Revolution in 2014, promised to return to the Ukrainian government and proposed to restore the previous composition of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. “I will return to Ukraine for sure. I’m in Moscow now, as the former Prime Minister of Ukraine, but I’m not a former Ukrainian politician,” he stated at a press conference in Moscow on the 25th of February, TASS reported.

Azarov also stated that he saw no reason to …

The Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada is discussing the possibility of appointing the Head of the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko, former Minister of Internal Affairs, Yuriy Lutsenko, and the Head of the Donetsk Regional Military and Civil Administration, Pavel Zhebrivskyi, to the post of Prosecutor General. This was said by the Head of the Anti-Corruption Committee from the Samopomich party, Yegor Sobolev, according to Ukrainian online news portal GORDON.

"I've heard from members of the Committee on the …

In a television interview, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin outlined the strategy to return Crimea to Ukraine, stating that the plan consists of three basic parts: political, diplomatic and informational. 

According to Klimkin, the first phase of the plan consists of the political and diplomatic elements, and includes western countries providing support to Ukraine.  It also involves gaining support of the non-recognition policy of Crimea’s occupation, as well supporting sanctions …

Five employees of the pro-democracy organization Open Russia were detained on Friday night. According to the advocacy group’s human rights manager, Pauline Nemirovskaya, the two vehicle carrying the employees were pulled over by Moscow police shortly after leaving the office.

Dozhd reported that police officers declared that the cars were wanted, and six people (five employees and one driver) were taken to the Basmanny police station.

Shortly after, lawyer Sergei Badamshin attempted to enter …

Russian company Gazprom, Italian company Edison and Greek company DEPA have signed an agreement to transport gas from Russia to Europe via a route under the Black Sea, as stated in a press release by Gazprom.

The Russian company emphasized that the parties were interested in natural gas supply routes from Russia to Greece, as well as from Greece to Italy.  The results of work carried out by Edison and DEPA under the ITGI Poseidon project will be used “to the fullest extent” for these purposes. …

The offices of Open Russia in St. Petersburg were evacuated during the presentation of Ilya Yashin, the Deputy Chairman of the People’s Freedom Party (PARNAS).  Yashin was presenting his report, “The threat to national security”, which detailed the situation in Chechnya and the life of its leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.  This was reported to Dozhd on the 25th of February by the co-chair of PARNAS' St. Petersburg division, Natalia Gryaznevich.

Yashin had already presented the report and was in the …

The European Union expects full implementation of two out of five commitments in the so-called “visa-free” package from Kiev. 

A European diplomat said this to the correspondent of UKRINFORM in Brussels, commenting on the package of "visa-free" legislation approved by the Verkhovna Rada last week.

"Yes, indeed, there are still two important questions left: the National Anti-Corruption Agency and the law on electronic declarations," the diplomat said.

At the same time, he believes that the …

Azerbaijan demands that the Kremlin provide assurance that weapons supplied to Armenia won't be located in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Azerbaijani authorities handed over a note of protest to Russia in connection with the arms deal signed between Moscow and Yerevan, according to a report by BBC Ukraine, with reference to the official representative of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hikmet Hajiyev.

"Weapons acquired by Yerevan are usually situated in the separatist region of Azerbaijan, …