Contents tagged with Russia

  • Russian Foreign Ministry: Ukraine is preparing to return the Donbas using military means

    The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that Ukrainian authorities are preparing for a power struggle to secure the return of the Donbas, according to the State Secretary and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Grigory Karasin, as stated in an interview with TASS.

    According to him, "those activities carried out by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the vicinity of the contact line, including the rotation of the military and the strengthening of military components, are …

  • Latvia detects Russian warships near its territorial waters

    The Latvian National Armed Forces has detected Russian warships in its economic zone.

    "In the Latvian economic zone, at a distance of 20 nautical miles from the state border, armed forces detected a Russian warship of the Steregushchiy class, a submarine technical support vessel of Kashtan class and the Kilo class submarine," this was stated in a message on the Armed Forces of Latvia’s Twitter page.

    It is worth noting that NATO counted 250 recent interceptions of Russian military aircraft in …

  • Russia supplies Kurdish Peshmerga with weapons

    Russia has supplied Iraqi Kurds with five ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns, as reported by RIA Novosti.  The weapons were transferred on March 14th in the presence the Russian Consulate General and Russian Ambassador, as well of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

     "The arms shipment came the day before yesterday, on the 14th of March, and was intended for the armed forces of Iraqi Kurdistan — the Peshmerga. The weapons were transferred in the presence of the …

  • Naftogaz to expand its claims against Gazprom

    As of the first quarter of 2016, NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine will increase its claims against Gazprom up to $1 billion under the gas transit contract, as reported by Business Development Director, Yury Vitrenko, on his Facebook page. “We will receive nearly $1 billion from Gazprom for the first quarter of 2016 for underpayment of gas transit costs,” he said.

    According to Vitrenko, the claims under the gas purchase contract will be also expanded.

    “Both parties will expand their claims before the …

  • US Secretary of State to meet with Putin in Moscow

    US Secretary of State, John Kerry, will visit Moscow next week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said this on Tuesday, March 15, 2016, Reuters reported.

    The purpose of his visit will be to discuss further settlements of the conflict in Syria. However, he stressed that the world has received the best opportunity to end the conflict in Syria with the withdrawal of the Russian Forces.

    In turn, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia confirmed the possibility of the US Secretary …

  • Estonia urges the EU to implement an entry ban on those involved in the Savchenko case

    The Estonian Parliament wants the European Union to ban entry to the Russian officials responsible for the arrest, detention and unlawful condemnation of Nadiya Savchenko. This is reported in the statement taken during the meeting of the Estonian Parliament on the 15th of March, 2016.

    "The Parliament calls to ban the officials of the Russian Federation responsible for the detention, imprisonment and illegal trial of Savchenko from entering into the territory of the European Union", a statement …

  • Brussels warns EU banks against placing Russian Eurobonds

    The European Union fears that income from the Eurobonds will be received by Russians who are subject to sanctions. Earlier, a similar warning was issued by the White House.

    The European Union appealed to European banks to discourage them from placing Russian Eurobonds as reported in the Financial Times on Monday, March 15th. According to European experts, money raised from the placement of these Eurobonds could be used by Russia "for other purposes," including as a source income for …

  • US expert calls for new sanctions against Russia during Senate hearings

    Ukrinform reported on Ian Brzezinski’s remarks during recent hearings in the US Senate. Brzezinski, the Senior Fellow in the International Security Program on the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Advisors Group, said that the acting sanctions against Russia weren’t sufficient to make them cease aggression against Ukraine. He added that was reason enough for the West to impose additional restrictions against whole sectors of Russian economy, instead of simply extending them.

    “The West should get to …

  • Obama urges Putin to release Nadiya Savchenko

    During a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 14th, US President Barack Obama urged the Russian leader to release Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, Interfax reported.

    The news agency quoted the press secretary of the US Embassy in Moscow, Will Stevens.

    "President Obama also urged President Putin to release detained pilot and parliamentarian Nadiya Savchenko in accordance with the Minsk commitment to release all unlawfully detained persons," Stevens said. …

  • Operation in Syria could cost Russia up to $535 million

    According to the RBC media outlet, Russia could spend at least 38 billion rubles or up to $535 million on the military operation in Syria. Since the beginning of the campaign its costs could have grown by almost half.Costs per dayDuring Russia's 167-day military campaign in Syria the daily cost of operations could have grown by almost 50%, RBC estimates, basing its calculation on the data that was revealed by the Defense Ministry and the experts' evaluations.At the end of October 2015 the cost …