Contents tagged with Putin

  • US Treasury Department lifts sanctions from three Deripaska companies

    On Sunday, the US Treasury Department announced that it was lifting the sanctions previously imposed on three companies associated with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska: US Rusal PLC, En + Group PLC and JSC EuroSibEnergo.

    The decision was made despite the demands of Democrats in Congress to keep the restrictions imposed on these companies. Earlier, Republican legislators who hold the majority in the Senate blocked an attempt to keep the sanctions in effect.

    According to the administration, …

  • Ukrainian Prosecutor General: Yanukovych’s trial is also Putin’s trial

    Yanukovych’s trial is also Putin’s trial, because the court ruling clearly states that Russia’s  used Yanukovych‘s letter to Putin for occupation of Crimea and part of the Donbas, says Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko.

    The prosecutor was commenting on the verdict recently given by the Obolonskyi District Court of Kyiv on Yanukovych’s case for high treason and complicity in aggressive warfare, in which the former Ukrainian president was sentenced in absentia to 13 years in prison. …

  • Tokyo rejects Putin’s proposal to increase trade between Russia and Japan to $30 billion

    Russian President Vladimir Putin's proposal made to increase trade between Russia and Japan to $30 billion made to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the talks on the Kuril Islands was not greeted by Japan.

    The Japanese side did not give consent to Putin's plan, which called for an increase in investments in the Russian economy, to replenish it with technologies and to increase mutual trade by 1.5 times, the official representative of the Japanese Foreign Ministry told Kyodo.

    “Mr. …

  • Kyiv court finds Viktor Yanukovych guilty of high treason

    The Obolonskyi District Court of Kyiv has sentenced former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in absentia to 13 years in prison. Radio Liberty’s Russian service reported on 24 January that Yanukovych, who fled from Ukraine to Russia in 2014, was found guilty of high treason and complicity in aggressive war.

    The court dismissed the charges that he had been complicit in a deliberate attempt to change the territorial and state borders of Ukraine.

    Viktor Yanukovych himself did not attend the …

  • Putin expects TurkStream pipeline to be launched by the end of 2019

    Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes that the land section of TurkStream will be ready as planned before the end of 2019. 

    "We hope that the work on laying the land part [of the TurkStream pipeline] will be conducted in the same quick manner, so as to launch the gas pipeline as planned before the end of this year," said the Russian President at a press conference following the Russia-Turkey negotiations. 

    “The joint strategic cooperation is being successfully carried out on the largest …

  • Russia begins revision of Union treaty with Belarus

    Moscow has started to revise its treaty from 1999 which established the Union State with Belarus. The work is being done as part of the bilateral integration work group, said Russian Ambassador to Belarus Mikhail Babich on 23 January, as reported by Interfax.

    “The Russian part of the group has started working. They are currently making an inventory of all the terms of the union treaty according to the blocks: economic, social, on the state governance organs, on matters of security and military …

  • Putin: Russia and Japan will continue negotiations on the Kuril Islands

    Russia and Japan will continue negotiations on the peace treaty, stated Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe at the press-conference following the bilateral meeting in Moscow, the Russian service of Radio Svoboda reports.

    According to Putin, both parties are interested in the signing of the document. Putin said that the conditions of the peace treaty should be acceptable for both countries and supported by society. The Russian President noted that Moscow will …

  • Putin asks Abe for investments during Kuril handover negotiations

    Russia hopes to expand its investment and technological collaboration with Japan, said Russian President Vladimir Putin following negotiations with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe in Moscow.

    After the leaders’ meeting in the Kremlin, to which Abe had come “fully resolved” to deal with the matter of the peace treaty – which has been left hanging for more than 50 years due to the territorial dispute surrounding the Kuril islands – Putin bemoaned the small amount of Japanese investments in …

  • Media: Japanese Prime Minister will push for a peace treaty with Russia in exchange for only two Kuril Islands

    Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering the possibility of concluding a peace treaty with Russia if Moscow gives only two of the four disputed Kuril Islands to Japan, reported the Japanese news agency Kyodo with reference to government sources.

    According to the sources of the news agency, the prime minister of Japan is ready to focus on the transfer of Habomai and Shikotan, the smaller islands of the Kuril Ridge. As noted by the sources, he understands that if Tokyo continues to …

  • Japanese media names Japan’s conditions for peace treaty with Russia

    Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe will consider the possibility of signing a peace treaty with Russia if Russia guarantees to give Japan the islands of Shikotan and Habomai, the Kyodo news agency reports, citing sources in the Japanese government. According to the sources, the transfer of the islands Iturup and Kunashir appears unrealistic at present. They note that, according to Abe’s plan, the islands Shikotan and Habomai must be handed over to Japan de facto. 

    Tokyo considers the Kuril …