On October 26, 2018, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry placed a $2 billion sovereign eurobond, of which a $750 million 5-year tranche was issued at a rate of 9% and a $1.25 billion tranche at 9.75%. According to a Zerkalo Nedeli article by Tetiana Bohdan, chief of the Optima Expert-Analytical Center public finance department, this was one of the most expensive eurobond issuances in the world between October and November 2018. 

“As for world record-holders that have theoretically overtaken Ukraine, …

3 million 200 thousand Ukrainian citizens work abroad on a permanent basis, while the number of Ukrainians who work abroad temporarily is between 7 and 9 million, stated Ukrainian Social Policy Minister Andriy Reva on Saturday at a press conference, Interfax Ukraine reported. 

“According to the official data of the State Migration Service of Ukraine and the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, 3 million 200 thousand Ukrainian citizens work abroad on a permanent basis, while between 7 and 9 …

The Basmanny District Court of Moscow extended the arrest of immovable property and land of the Roshen confectionary factory in Lipetsk for three months. As a result, all money on the factory’s accounts for salaries of remaining personnel, were withdrawn to pay taxes, fines and penalties, the factory’s press service stated. 

"In fact, before the Arbitration Courts could took any decisions on the case, [Russian] tax authorities, using unsubstantiated judicial decisions on cancelation of interim …

On December 21, the UN General Assembly did not approve the Russian resolution  aimed at preserving the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). 43 states voted for the adoption of the document, 46 were against, and 78 countries did not take part in the voting. 

On Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that the withdrawal of the United States from the INF treaty can lead to a new arms race and direct confrontation in different parts of the world.

 “The results of voting in …

On December 17th, specialists of the World Anti-Doping Agency arrived in Moscow to extract data from the doping tests of Russian athletes for the period from 2011 to 2015 but they were not able to obtain these samples. According to Interfax, citing WADA’s press release, Moscow has demanded that the sampling equipment be certified in Russia. 

According to the Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s General Director Yuriy Ganus, failure to give WADA experts access to the doping samples, indicates that the …

Foreigners were unable to interfere with the counting of votes during Congress’s interim elections, but several countries did conduct cyber operations against the US ahead of the elections. 

According to a report published by US National Intelligence on December 21, these countries were Russia, China and Iran, which attempted to influence voters’ opinions by spreading misinformation on popular social networks. 

US National Intelligence Director Dan Coats said that these campaigns were …

Russia has sent over a dozen Su-27 and Su-30 fighter jets to annexed Crimea to boost its air force on the peninsula, according to a witness, Reuters reported. 

"More than a dozen SU-27 and SU-30 fighter jets which Russia is deploying to boost its air force, amid heightened tensions with Ukraine, arrived in the Crimea on Saturday,” the statement read. Reuters’s witness claimed to have seen the jets land at Belbek air base in the Crimea. 

Meanwhile, the Russian news agency Interfax reported  …

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a law which obligates the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP) to indicate in its name that it belongs to Russia, the presidential press service reports.

“People have a constitutional right to the free choice of religion. The mentioned changes to the law create better conditions to realize such a right for everyone who will decide which orthodox jurisdiction they belong to: whether the autocephalous Orthodox Church of …