Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Channel Euronews that Russia would leave the Council of Europe on its own terms rather than give the Council the opportunity to exclude or expel Russia from its ranks.

"I don't think that Russia's participation in the European Council is more important to Russia than it is to the Council itself. This is my strong position,” Lavrov stated. He explained that Moscow joined the Council of Europe to ensure “pan-European, …

New facilities for accommodation of NATO troops and equipment which were built using US-allocated funds were solemnly opened on Tuesday at Amari Air Base near Tallinn, reported the press service of the General Staff of the Estonian Defense Forces.

According to Estonian Defense Minister Jüri Luik, the facilities, among which is a new hangar, a headquarters building and a platform for explosive goods, were built as part of the US Executive Defense International in Europe (EDI). The project cost …

President of Syria Bashar al-Assad plans to visit the Crimea in April 2019 and is holding negotiations on the beginning of a commercial airline route between Syria and the Black Sea peninsula, TASS reported.

Members of the Crimean Delegation visited Syria this week, including the Russian Prime Minister of the Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov. The Crimea is under Western sanctions imposed after Russia annexed the peninsula in 2014.

Russia has been Assad’s key ally in the seven-year Syrian conflict. …

Russian Prime Minister of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov, who is currently in Syria, announced that the possibility of air traffic between Syria and Crimea is being considered.

“We are actively working on the matter of creating a joint Syrian-Crimean trade house, and in addition there is the matter of opening air traffic between the Syrian Arab Republic and the Republic of Crimea. We are prepared to offer the capabilities of all our enterprises to business owners from Syria, so that they can fully …

In order to increase the numbers of its surface forces, Russia has sent two military ships to the Sea of Azov: the Project 1040 Svetlyak-class patrol boats Syktyvkar and Kizlyar from the Russian Coast Guard, the Ukrainian Military Portal reports.

On October 10, the Kizlyar was spotted at the Cheboksary Reservoir, not far from Nizhny Novgorod beyond the passage in Arkhangelsk. The Syktyvkar took the same course on October 11.

“Both ships are expected to arrive in the Sea of Azov after October 2 …

Ukraine has demanded that the Kremlin immediately call off the preparations for the so-called elections in the Donbas, Verkhovna Rada First Deputy Chairwoman Iryna Herashchenko wrote on Facebook.

A session of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) was held on October 17, at which Ukraine was represented by presidential adviser Ruslan Demchenko.

“Today the Ukrainian party firmly demanded that Russia and the Kremlin’s puppets immediately call off the preparations for the fake, worthless "elections" …

The LB.ua news outlet reports that Hungary did not stop issuing passports to Ukrainian citizens but only moved this solemn ceremony to its territory.

According to LB.ua, Budapest instructed to temporarily suspend citizenship ceremonies in the Transcarpathian region, now they will be held at the local government of the Sabolch-Satmar-Bereg region in Hungary bordering with Ukraine.

In addition, Budapest will investigate the appearance of a scandalous video of the Hungarian passports …

Russian pilgrims have difficulty obtaining visas to visit the Greek Athos peninsula, reported the Govorit Moskva of (Moscow Speaking) radio station.

 “There is already a problem and it is not even related to church. The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not issue visas not only to servants of the Russian Orthodox Church but also to pilgrims to visit Athos,” said the representative of the St. Andrew Foundation.

In order to go to Athos, pilgrims had to obtain Italian visas and Catholics …