The World Bank predicts that the Russian economy will shrink 1.9%, a poorer estimate than the December forecast which estimated a dip of only 0.7%.

The worsening of the forecast is due to a revaluation of oil prices for 2016. In the previous forecast the bank assumed that the average oil price would be 49 dollars per barrel. According to the bank’s new estimates, the average oil price this year will be about 37 dollars per barrel.

The new WB forecast also anticipates 1.1% growth in the …

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk intends to introduce a ban on the import of oil products from Russia. He stated this on April 6th during a meeting with the government. Ukraine has established strict sanctions on goods from Russia after the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and because of Moscow's support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. Russia responded with its own ban on Ukrainian goods.

At a meeting with the government in Kiev, Yatsenyuk said that "we have introduced …

Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first comments on the investigation of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, calling it “nonsense”, Dozhd reported.

“The publication of the ‘Panama Papers’ is an attempt to destabilize the situation in the country,” Putin stated. “The easiest way to do this is to motivate people to distrust the authorities.”

The International Consortium for Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) recently published a report highlighting the ways in which …

Pro-Russian separatists have fired on Ukrainian positions 23 times since midnight near in the Donbas region, mostly around Avdiivka, the Press Center of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stated, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine on April 7th.

Exchanges of fire were also reported near Nevelsky, Trehizbenka, and the Butovka mine.

The Press Center confirmed that Ukrainian soldiers returned fire.

“Our experiences the past few days have shown that [to open fire] is the only way to stop the provocation of …

Georgia, as before, will get 10% of the total volume of Russian gas supplies to Armenia as transit fees according to the agreement signed by the Russian corporation, as reported by the Ministry of Energy of Georgia."The text of the contract has already been agreed upon. The Ministry of Energy received the contract and sent it to the Ministry of Justice for legal assessment. The contract will then be submitted to the government for approval. Only after that will the contract come officially into …

The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, believes that Russia is involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “Russia said that Turkey is a party to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Indeed, Russia is a party to the conflict,” Erdoğan stated. Reuters quotes Erdogan as saying that Russia was involved in the conflict in Georgia, in Ukraine and now the conflict in Syria as well.

Earlier, the Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, stated that Russia doesn’t find Turkey responsible for the …

The Russian Federation is ready to exchange Ukrainian serviceman and People's Deputy of Ukraine, Nadiya Savchenko, if Ukraine recognizes the sentence of the Russian court, according to Savchenko`s mother, Maria Savchenko, as indicated in an interview with the Associated Press.

"They [the Ukrainian government] want to do an exchange. But Russia has two conditions: to recognize the validity of the sentence by the Russian court and to exchange her for others [Russian prisoners in Ukraine]," Maria  …

According to Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, the Kremlin remains a strategic partner of Armenia, despite the fact that Russia supplies arms to Azerbaijan, as reported by Sputnik.

"It's a fact that Russia is our strategic ally and we are a member of the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization). We are sensitive to the fact that Russia and other CSTO countries continue to supply weapons to Azerbaijan. But, as you know, our abilities to resist this are limited," Sargsyan said.

On April 2 …