Moscow has said that the sanctions imposed by Washington on PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, in an attempt to undermine Nicolas Maduro’s power, are illegal. 

“The legitimate leadership of Venezuela has already described these sanctions as illegal. One can fully get behind this perspective,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. 

The US Treasury Department said that the measures against the Venezuelan state-owned oil company were adopted in order to “change the …

According to an investigation by the Bell newspaper, Evgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman known as “Putin's chef”, created the private military company (PMC), the  Wagner Group following the orders of Russia's high-ranking military leaders. 

The very idea of creating a PMC was born at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in 2010. Eeben Barlow, the founder of Executive Outcomes, the world's first legal private military company, was also present at the forum. Barlow told the military about the …

In 2019, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry is planning to provide 20 new weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Those plans are specified in the state defense procurement program for this year, said Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak. 

"For me, personally, the state defense procurement program for this year is very optimistic because it provides delivery of at least 20 types of weapons to the Armed Forces which they did not have before. It is a good sign for us all that we are moving forward and …

Polish Radio reports that during a meeting of ministers from European countries members of the UN Security Council with the head of the EU diplomatic department Federica Mogherini, the Polish Foreign, Minister Jacek Czaputowicz called on the participants to consider sending a UN peacekeeping mission to Ukraine.

“It is important for us to keep the issue of aggression against Ukraine on international forum agendas, including the UN. It would be good to consider new initiatives that will bring us …

Despite all Israel’s attempts to shut down Iran’s supply routes for sending weapons to Syria, Tehran has still been able to arm its proxies with rockets and other weapons. 

The Israeli news site Nziv reported with reference to sources in the Arab press that the Assad regime and Hezbollah had received another arms shipment. This time, the weapons were delivered by air, virtually out in the open. 

The munitions were reportedly transported in an Il-76TD cargo plane belonging to the Iranian …

All investments of Russian companies in projects in Venezuela are totally safe, the Ambassador of Venezuela to Russia, Carlos Rafael Faria Tortosa stated in an interview with the newspaper Izvestia. 

“I can say with full confidence that investments are totally safe,” the diplomat said. According to him, authorities “are in control of all processes” and the situation in the streets is calm. “They [ the projects] will also be protected by the Venezuelan Armed Forces, if necessary,” Tortosa added. …

In an interview with the newspaper Kleine Zeitung, the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairmanship in Ukraine and the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk, Martin Sajdik said that the OSCE Ministerial Council had been presented with a new peace plan for the Donbas conflict, which should replace the Minsk agreements. 

Sajdik is the main author of the new concept of peace and has stated that plan was introduced to Russia and Ukraine in the OSCE. 

The Special Representative proposed the …

A delegation from Moscow headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin and Russian President's Special Envoy Alexander Lavrentiev arrived in Israel.

They were received at the Israeli Foreign Ministry by the General Director of the diplomatic department Yuval Rotem. The Kremlin envoys are expected to meet with the Israeli Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to Israeli sources, the parties will discuss "Syrian issues”.

As reported on the …