• Estonia jails three for spying for Russia

    The Tartu District Court in Estonia has convicted three people for crimes against the state.  The Public Prosecutor’s office reported that all three convicts “illegally cooperated with Russian intelligence services”.

    According to Interfax, two sentences were passed in October 2015 and the third one was passed last week.

    In February, Maxim Gruzdev, a 32-year-old Estonian citizen, was sentenced to four years in prison.  He was recruited in the second half of 2013 in the Pskov region.  Before he …

  • Georgian President to visit Baku in March

    Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili will visit Baku in March. According to the press service of the State Committee for Work with the Diaspora (GKRD) of Azerbaijan, the Georgian President will attend the fourth Global Baku Forum, organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center.

    The forum, entitled “Towards a Multipolar World”, will take place on March 10th and 11th.  Discussion in Baku will be center around the role of interreligious dialogue in conflict prevention, migration, …

  • Saakashvili's ambitions in Ukraine are higher than the position of Prime Minister

    The Governor of Odessa, Mikhail Saakashvili, stated that his ambitions in Ukraine are not limited to the post of Prime Minister.

    According to the politician, his goal is “to establish new rules of the game and to involve a new generation of the political elite.” He also noted in an interview with the Rustavi 2 channel in Georgia that Ukraine is now exploring the same path as Georgia had before the Rose Revolution.

    Saakashvili also noted that he would begin to be more active and start meeting …

  • Ukrainian Intelligence suggests pro-Russian separatists are resigning at a high rate

    According to intelligence reports, on the 19th of February, nine servicemen of the Gorlovka 3rd separate motorized rifle brigade submitted resignation requests, stating that they would "return to Russia". The Defense Intelligence asserted that with regard to mass resignations, the staffing of personnel in the brigade subdivisions must not exceed 50%.  In addition, in the Novoazovsk 9th separate motorized rifle regiment reported that resignation requests were issued by almost all junior …

  • Estonian President: Russia-NATO Agreement from 1997 is 'Obsolete'

    Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves believes that under the current conditions, the Russia- NATO Founding Act from 1997 is obsolete, as he stated in the interview with Eesti Päevaleht. According to him, the agreement provided for a permanent but limited presence of NATO forces in the newly formed states of the former Soviet Union, but it did not envision the current security situation. “It includes language that under the current and expected security situation the permanent forces will not …

  • Ukraine intends to restore TV and radio broadcasts to Crimea

    The National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine has established a working group to restore broadcasting in the south of the Kherson region and to Crimea.  This was reported by the Press Service of the Ministry.

    The group was created "for the purpose of protecting the informational space and the informational sovereignty in the south of the country".  The group is headed by Crimean citizen and Member of the National Council of Television and Radio broadcasting of Ukraine, …

  • French and German Foreign Ministers visit Kiev

    On the 22nd of February, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Germany and France, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Jean-Marc Ayrault, who arrived in Berlin on the same day, flew from the German capital for a two-day visit to Kiev. 

    They flew on board a German governmental plane immediately after a brief meeting and press conference in the departure lounge of the government terminal at the Tegel airport. The negotiating agenda was more than full.

    Firstly, the Special Representative of the OSCE in …

  • Crimean Tatar leader issues statement on anniversary of deportation of Chechen and Ingush peoples

    The head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars, Refat Chubarov, issued a statement on Tuesday on the anniversary of the forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush peoples in 1944 to honor the memory of the victims of state repression.

    “72 years ago, on February 23rd, by the communist regime of the USSR, a special operation began on the total deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from their historical lands. Over half a million people were forcibly evicted, about half of the Ingush and …

  • PARNAS office in Moscow evacuated because of bomb threat

    The Moscow office of the People’s Freedom Party (PARNAS) was evacuated on Tuesday after a bomb threat was received.

    Ilya Yashin, key leader of the opposition party, was due to present his reported entitled “National Security Threat”, in which he outlined the activities of Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov.

    Upon receiving word of the bomb threat, Yashin asked the audience to remain on the ground and not to panic.

    “The bomb is in my hands”, Yashin said, holding up the report.

    The police demanded …

  • Russian Duma demands that Eurovision ban performance of song by representative of Ukraine

    The State Duma of the Russian Federation urges the leadership of Eurovision to prohibit Ukrainian singer Jamala from participating in their contest with a song about the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, Russian media reported.

    According to the Russian website Ekho Moskvii, the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Vadim Dengin, said that this song is being used to "offend Russia once again."

    The Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, Refat Chubarov, …