Five thousand forms have already been prepared for the distribution of Russian passports to residents of the occupied areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, reports LB.ua in the article “Operation passportization”: the motivation behind Kremlin distribution of Russian citizenships to residents of the LPR and the DPR”.

“According to LB.ua sources in law enforcement agencies, the estimated number of forms appears to be 500 thousand. Local security officials (“siloviki”) were told …

Several Russian TV channels will broadcast the pre-election debate between the presidential candidates Volodymyr Zelensky and Petro Poroshenko in the evening of April 19.

RBC Ukraine reports, citing the editor-in-chief of the Russian television news network RT (formerly Russia Today), Margarita Simonyan, that the debate will be broadcasted on the RT Russia website with translation to the Russian language.

The press service of the NTV channel informed RBC that they will broadcast election …

During negotiations held by the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), Russia refused to support Ukraine’s initiative to declare an Easter truce that would start on April 19, said Ukrainian representative in the TCG, Iryna Herashchenko.

According to her, the Skype conference lasted for six hours, but the negotiations bore no results.

“Russia refused to support the Ukrainian initiative to declare a truce for the holiday and refused to take on the responsibility of enforcing a cease-fire in the Donbas, …

The Russian government has banned the export of Russian oil and oil products to Ukraine. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev issued the announcement on April 18 at a government meeting, reported the Russian media. Dmitry Medvedev noted that “a ban is being placed on the export of Russian oil and oil products to Ukraine” and said that he had signed the relevant decree.

“A few days ago, The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers took another unfriendly step in relations with our country, expanding the list  …

Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, who arrived in Moscow for the opening ceremony of the Estonian Embassy in Moscow after its renovations, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, April 18. They discussed bilateral relations, the situation in Ukraine and Georgia. “At the same time, of course, I proceeded from the position of the European Union,” stressed Kersti Kaljulaid.

Speaking about the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the Estonian president noted that she supports the sanctions. …

Russian President Vladimir Putin replaced the head of the presidential directorate, supervisor of the DPR, LPR as well as Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. According to Putin’s decree, Aleksey Filatov was appointed to replace Oleg Govorun.

The new head of the presidential directorate has been working with South Ossetia. Last year, in his role as deputy head of the directorate, Filatov became involved with the DPR and LPR.

Earlier, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported …

In February, Russia increased its investment in US government securities to $ 14.5 billion according to data from the US Department of the Treasury. Of the invested amount, $ 6.9 billion went to long-term bonds and $7.5 billion to short-term bonds. In January, Russia's investment in US government securities amounted to $13.1 billion.

In 2018, the Central Bank of Russia increased its gold reserves by a record 274.3 tons, becoming the largest buyer of the metal. These purchases were carried out …

The oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s lawyers plan to set up a 600 thousand dollars reward for journalists who will investigate why the United States imposed sanctions against the Russian businessman, writes The Financial Times, citing its own sources.

According to the international daily newspaper, Deripaska, the founder of one of Russia's largest industrial groups, intends to refute the charges, which the United States used to impose restrictive measures against him.

“Congress craves more blood ... …