Pakistan and Russia began annual joint military exercises to strengthen cooperation in the war against terrorism and the growing threat from the Islamic State group in neighboring Afghanistan.

According to officials, the Friendship III exercise began on Monday at the National Center for Counterterrorism in the mountain city of Pabbi. A Pakistani Special Forces headquarters is also located there.

The official representative of the Pakistan army, Major General Asif Ghafoor, said that this was …

During a meeting with the Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Sevastopol, “was legally always a part of Russia.”

Sobyanin noted that Moscow and Sevastopol are sister cities, and “at all times, even when Sevastopol was not a part of Russia,” the Russian capital always helped it. Putin interrupted Sobyanin, saying that Sevastopol formally has always been a Russian city.

“Sevastopol has always been legally part of Russia. It was a city under central …

The Russian Finance Ministry published draft amendments to the federal budget for 2018, in which it, for the second time in the last 6 months, proposes to reduce expenditure on the social articles and to increase funding for the law enforcement and defense departments, state organizations and state banks, finanz.ru reports.

Due to the spike in oil prices and the weak ruble, the budget surplus is five times higher than the initial prediction, at 2.14 trillion rubles instead of the pledged 481.7 …

During a meeting with a team from the Accounting Chamber in Kyiv on Monday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko urged Ukrainians not to believe the populists who promise to bring down the price of natural gas, because this can only be done by going back to Russian gas supply contracts. “Listen today to the populists’ promises to bring the gas price down to half, a third, a quarter – some have even agreed to lower the price to one sixth. This can only be done by returning to the Russian gas …

The report published on the Kremlin’s website states that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree introducing "special economic measures" in regards to the "unfriendly Ukraine’s actions."

The decree states that Russia imposed these economic restrictions to protect its national interests and “respond to Ukraine’s unfriendly and contrary to international law actions related to the introduction of restrictive measures against citizens and legal entities of the Russian Federation”.

The …

The state corporation Shepetivsky Repair Plant has finished overhauling a batch of 220mm Urahan multiple rocket launchers (MRL) and has handed them over to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as was reported by the press service of the Ukrainian state defense concern Ukroboronprom, which includes the Shepetivsky Plant. The size of the batch was not stated.

The factory completely restored all the nodes and units of the Urahan MRLs, which passed quality control tests in the client’s presence.

The …

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini announced that Ukraine, Montenegro, Albania and Norway have aligned themselves with the European Union's decision to extend sanctions against the Russian Federation. European Union imposed these sanctions due to the violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

In September, these four countries supported the European Union Council’s decision, which extended the restrictions on Russia …

Representatives of the Swedish banks Svenska Handelsbanken and Nordea, the Danish bank Danske Bank and their Finnish divisions have confirmed to the Finnish broadcasting corporation Yle that Russian businessman Boris Rotenberg filed lawsuits against them and accused them of violating their obligations.

In early October, Rotenberg filed lawsuits against these banks and the Finnish OP Corporate Bank with the Helsinki District Court. The businessman alleged that the banks violated service …