Contents tagged with Russia

  • Putin: Sevastopol was legally always a part of Russia

    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 …

  • Russia to cut back on social spending in favor of defense, police and state banks

    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 …

  • Poroshenko: gas prices in Ukraine can only be lowered through 'Russian gas cabal'

    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 …

  • Putin imposes retaliatory sanctions against Ukraine

    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 …

  • Ukraine, Norway, Montenegro and Albania extend sanctions against Russia

    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 …

  • Russian tycoon Rotenberg files lawsuit against Scandinavian banks for failure to provide service because of sanctions

    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 …

  • US Air Force carries out reconnaissance flight near Russian borders in the Barents Sea

    On Sunday, October 20, a US Air Force Boeing RC-135U Combat strategic reconnaissance aircraft flew over the international borders of the Barents Sea near Russia’s maritime borders in the Murmansk region, Interfax reports, citing the monitoring data of western aviation resources.

    The aircraft bearing number 64-14849 and call sign LUIGI16 took off from the Mildenhall airbase of the Royal Air Forces of Great Britain. The flight lasted over three hours.

    On Thursday, October 18, a USAF Boeing RC-13 …

  • NATO accuses Moscow of unilaterally denouncing the US INF treaty

    Representatives of  the North Atlantic Alliance stated that Moscow is responsible for the unilateral denunciation of the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-range and Shorter-range Missiles (INF) with the USA since, in recent years, Russia has not complied with the terms of the treaty, reports Russian media.

    “At the NATO summit in July, the Allies declared that the US was fulfilling the terms of the treaty, while Russia’s actions over many years, has cast a whole range of doubts,” NATO …

  • Pakistan criticizes India’s arms deal with Russia

    The Pakistani government has criticized India’s intention to purchase S-400 anti-air missile systems from Russia, and responded that Islamabad is capable of opposing the supposed threat to its security.

    Earlier Delhi signed a deal with Russia to purchase what experts consider the most modern anti-missile defense systems for a price of $5.4 billion. The Indian authorities claim to be doing so in order to protect India against missile strikes from China or Pakistan.

    In an official communique, …

  • Russia calls US withdrawal from Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty ‘blackmail’

    The head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Federation Council, Konstantin Kosachev, wrote on his Facebook page that Donald Trump’s statement about withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) is "an ongoing blackmail."

    According to him, the United States as a nuclear power "destroys" this treaty unilaterally. Kosachev noted that the consequences of such actions would be catastrophic.

    The senator explained that after the withdrawal, Washington would be able …