Contents tagged with Russia

  • Russia to Stop Exporting Electricity to Ukraine

    Russia decided not to renew contract negotiations on the supply of electricity from Russia to Ukraine after its refusal to buy Ukrainian electricity for Crimea. According to the newspaper Kommersant, “Russia will stop commercial energy supplies to Ukraine. The contract will not be renewed in its last year.”

    The Russian Federation’s Ministry of Energy stated that “Russia does not negotiate about the supply of electricity from Russia to Ukraine. We will not renew the present agreement, as …

  • Finland Expects Thousands of Refugees to Enter Via Russia In 2016

    Finland’s national public-broadcasting company, Yle, cited the Lapland border service, who predicted that in the year 2016 about 7,500 refugees could enter Finland through the border with Russia. This forecast was made based on the current rate of arrival of asylum-seekers.

    Since the beginning of the year around 200 refugees crossed the Finnish-Russian border through the checkpoints Salla and Raja-Jooseppi. Most of the refugees were Iraqis, Afghans, Nepalese and Syrians. Last year 700 …

  • France Calls on Russia to Halt Airstrikes against Civilians in Syria

    After meeting with one of the coordinators for the Syrian opposition, Rayad Farid Hijab, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Laurent Fabius, told reporters that Syria and Russia must halt military operations against civilians. According to the Minister they have discussed the absolute need to halt military actions which Russian and Syrian Government forces are taking against civilians. Fabius specified that the discussion was focused on the small Syrian town of …

  • Russian Bombers Kill Seventeen in Aleppo

    Seventeen people were killed and 35 more were injured as a result of a Russian Air Force attacks on the opposition-controlled districts of Sukari and Ameriye in the Syrian city of Aleppo, according to representatives of the Civil Defense of Aleppo. Among the dead and wounded are women and children.

    Civil Defense teams conducted search and rescue operations in the area of the ​​air strikes. The wounded have been taken to city hospitals. It is reported that as a result of Russian air strikes in …

  • Russia to Test Sixteen Ballistic Missiles in 2016

    The Strategic Rocket Forces of the Russian Federation (RVSN RF) plans to test launch 16 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles in 2016.

    According to the website of the Russian Defense Ministry, the purpose of these launches is to develop new weapons and test the technical readiness of missile systems.

    Earlier it was reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin, during the Annual Expanded Board of the Ministry of Defence in December of 2015, announced that among the priority tasks of the Armed …

  • Duma Deputy: We Need To Bury Lenin

    The Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation from LDPR (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia), Ivan Sukharev, stated in his interview with the Russian News Service that it was past time to bury Lenin.

    Vladimir Ulyanov Lenin was the Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union and one of the most significant and influential figures in history. He died on January 21st, 1924. On that day, the Soviet Government received hundreds of telegrams and letters with requests …

  • Nine Towns Left Without Electricity in Crimea

    Nine towns in Crimea were left without electricity when a high voltage transmission line broke down. The Russian government press service reported that the Simferopol REN (Regional Electric Networks) suffered a damaged power line that generated 35 kW of electricity. The towns of Hvardiiske, Sofiyivka, Sovkhoznoye, Malenkoye, Zhuravlevka, Shirokoye, Divnoye, Storozhevoye and Kuprino were deprived of power as a result. Repair work is currently ongoing.

    On December 30th, Ukrainian power supplies …

  • With no one to sell to, Gazprom cuts natural gas purchases from Turkmenistan

    The head of Russian natural gas giant Gazprom, Alexei Miller, recently reported to President Vladimir Putin that his company is able to harvest 617 billion cubic meters of gas annually, but last year it was able to sell only 444 billion, meaning the Public Joint Stock Company has a surplus of 173 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

    While western sanctions against Russia do not specifically target hydrocarbons, the conflict in Ukraine has undoubtedly led many western countries to turn to …

  • Russian airstrikes in Syria add to influx of refugees to Europe

    Human rights activists claim that civilian victims of the Russian bombing campaign in Syria number in the hundreds in densely populated areas. This Saturday, a senior U.S. official reported that only one-third of Russian aviation air strikes are being aimed at the positions of the so-called Islamic State. The indiscriminate bombing forces civilians to flee, further exacerbating the crisis in Europe caused by the massive influx of refugees.

    Among the 5,000 air strikes inflicted by the Russian …

  • Nemtsov's Assassination was not First Attempt

    The 5 men suspected of assassinating Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in February of 2015 were indicted on December 29th. They were charged with "a contract murder committed by an organized group and the acquisition, transport and storage of illegal firearms," the Russian Investigative Committee said.

    Rosbalt has reported that the suspects in Nemtsov’s assassination case allegedly attempted to kill the opposition leader several times before finally succeeding on the evening of February 2 …