The offices of Open Russia in St. Petersburg were evacuated during the presentation of Ilya Yashin, the Deputy Chairman of the People’s Freedom Party (PARNAS).  Yashin was presenting his report, “The threat to national security”, which detailed the situation in Chechnya and the life of its leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.  This was reported to Dozhd on the 25th of February by the co-chair of PARNAS' St. Petersburg division, Natalia Gryaznevich.

Yashin had already presented the report and was in the …

The US State Department confirmed that it is working with representatives of the business community in order to convince companies to not do business with Russia in the usual way, RIA Novosti reported. “We continue to clearly state in communications with US companies that we believe that a return to the usual means of conducting business with Russia causes both economic and reputation risks,” the agency quoted the unnamed representative of the US State Department as saying.

According to the …

The European Union expects full implementation of two out of five commitments in the so-called “visa-free” package from Kiev. 

A European diplomat said this to the correspondent of UKRINFORM in Brussels, commenting on the package of "visa-free" legislation approved by the Verkhovna Rada last week.

"Yes, indeed, there are still two important questions left: the National Anti-Corruption Agency and the law on electronic declarations," the diplomat said.

At the same time, he believes that the …

Azerbaijan demands that the Kremlin provide assurance that weapons supplied to Armenia won't be located in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Azerbaijani authorities handed over a note of protest to Russia in connection with the arms deal signed between Moscow and Yerevan, according to a report by BBC Ukraine, with reference to the official representative of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hikmet Hajiyev.

"Weapons acquired by Yerevan are usually situated in the separatist region of Azerbaijan, …

UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) doesn’t recognize the Chersonesos Taurica museum and reserve as being under Russian control. “Today, UNESCO doesn’t recognize this. A vote was held in the United Nations that Crimea is not yet recognized as a part of Russia in the international legal understanding of this issue,” the Permanent Delegate of the Russian Federation to UNESCO, Eleonora Mitrofanova said.

According to Mitrofanova, Kiev holds that the …