As of the first quarter of 2016, NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine will increase its claims against Gazprom up to $1 billion under the gas transit contract, as reported by Business Development Director, Yury Vitrenko, on his Facebook page. “We will receive nearly $1 billion from Gazprom for the first quarter of 2016 for underpayment of gas transit costs,” he said.

According to Vitrenko, the claims under the gas purchase contract will be also expanded.

“Both parties will expand their claims before the …

US Secretary of State, John Kerry, will visit Moscow next week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said this on Tuesday, March 15, 2016, Reuters reported.

The purpose of his visit will be to discuss further settlements of the conflict in Syria. However, he stressed that the world has received the best opportunity to end the conflict in Syria with the withdrawal of the Russian Forces.

In turn, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia confirmed the possibility of the US Secretary …

The Estonian Parliament wants the European Union to ban entry to the Russian officials responsible for the arrest, detention and unlawful condemnation of Nadiya Savchenko. This is reported in the statement taken during the meeting of the Estonian Parliament on the 15th of March, 2016.

"The Parliament calls to ban the officials of the Russian Federation responsible for the detention, imprisonment and illegal trial of Savchenko from entering into the territory of the European Union", a statement …

The European Union fears that income from the Eurobonds will be received by Russians who are subject to sanctions. Earlier, a similar warning was issued by the White House.

The European Union appealed to European banks to discourage them from placing Russian Eurobonds as reported in the Financial Times on Monday, March 15th. According to European experts, money raised from the placement of these Eurobonds could be used by Russia "for other purposes," including as a source income for …

Ukrainian lawmakers approved draft legislation aimed at combating corruption by imposing control over the assets of senior and junior level officials and their families.

Under legislation passed on March 15th, these officials are required to file electronic asset declarations and will be held criminally responsible for inaccurate or misleading information.

The data will be available on the web for monitoring purposes.

The European Union is putting pressure on Ukraine to implement anti- …

Ukrinform reported on Ian Brzezinski’s remarks during recent hearings in the US Senate. Brzezinski, the Senior Fellow in the International Security Program on the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Advisors Group, said that the acting sanctions against Russia weren’t sufficient to make them cease aggression against Ukraine. He added that was reason enough for the West to impose additional restrictions against whole sectors of Russian economy, instead of simply extending them.

“The West should get to …

During a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 14th, US President Barack Obama urged the Russian leader to release Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, Interfax reported.

The news agency quoted the press secretary of the US Embassy in Moscow, Will Stevens.

"President Obama also urged President Putin to release detained pilot and parliamentarian Nadiya Savchenko in accordance with the Minsk commitment to release all unlawfully detained persons," Stevens said. …

According to the RBC media outlet, Russia could spend at least 38 billion rubles or up to $535 million on the military operation in Syria. Since the beginning of the campaign its costs could have grown by almost half.Costs per dayDuring Russia's 167-day military campaign in Syria the daily cost of operations could have grown by almost 50%, RBC estimates, basing its calculation on the data that was revealed by the Defense Ministry and the experts' evaluations.At the end of October 2015 the cost …