Contents tagged with Russia

  • EEU Countries do not Support Cutting Economic Ties with Ukraine

    The member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) composed of Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia do not support Russia abandoning the free trade zone with Ukraine, which operates within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), as reported by Viktor Khristenko, the Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Union, after the meeting of the Presidents of the EEU member states in Moscow.

    "Within the next six months the legal mechanisms that allow national governments to …

  • India gives bad press to Russian jets

    According to India's autonomous auditing agency Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the Russian Sukhoi SU-30MKI jets suffer from poor serviceability. The CAG report presented to Indian Parliament on Dec.18 notes that the operational readiness of the Russian jet was too low due to high rate of “Aircraft on Ground”, low serviceability and less achievement in flying hours. The unacceptable rate of AOG (Aircraft on Ground) means that out of 210 SU-30MKI with the Indian Air Force, more than 120 …

  • Ukraine won't ask the Kremlin's permission to choose its direction of development

    The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, has promised that authorities will not take into account the interests and suggestions of Russian leaders when selecting the pace and direction for the development of the state.

    "Our choice to integrate into Europe will be discussed exclusively with the Ukrainian people. It's not the Kremlin's business, no one is going to ask for their permission or their counsel on the development of the state," he said in an interview with Inter TV on Sunday …

  • Yatsenyuk explains the moratorium on "Yanukovych's debt"

    The Prime Minister of Ukraine has cited ‘political bribery’ as the rationale for the suspension of payments on the Ukrainian debt to Russia in the amount of $3.5 billion. This was stated during his "10 minutes with the Prime Minister about unity" speech on the 5th channel, as reported by the Ukrainian news agency UKRINFORM.

    "This debt was nothing more than a political bribe by Moscow to its puppet who ruled Ukraine.  This bribe was to ensure that Ukraine would not have a visa-free regime or …

  • John Kerry: Solving the Ukrainian problem is our main task

    “The United States and Russia can work together,” said U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry.  The main focus of American-Russian cooperation is the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis.

    "In September (during a speech by the U.S. President, Barack Obama, at the UN General Assembly) the main issue was the Ukrainian crisis, but since then we have made considerable progress.  I am now in Moscow, proving that, despite differences, Russia and the United States are able to and want to work together. We …

  • Russian Duma Speaker: Sanctions against Russia are humiliating and illogical for the EU

    According to Sergei Naryshkin, the Russian Duma Speaker, the sanctions against Russia have been entered into without the consent of the people of the EU.  The sanctions against Russia are humiliating and illogical for the EU, said Naryshkin, in an article he wrote for the newspaper Izvestia, released on Monday.

    "Brussels’ approach to modern Russia is a strategic miscalculation.  Talking to us in the language of illegal sanctions is illogical and obviously embarrassing for European diplomacy," …

  • Militants continue aggressive shelling of ATO forces in eastern Ukraine

    Illegally armed pro-Russian rebels continue trying to provoke Ukrainian Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) forces, according to the operation's press center.

    "Since the beginning of the day nearly 35 cases of ceasefire violations by the Russian-terrorist gangs have been reported," according to a post by the official press center on Facebook on Sunday.

    The press center sayid that the majority of the attacks have occurred around the Donetsk airport where small arms and grenade launchers of various …

  • Russian sanctions extended

    BRUSSELS – The European Union on Monday extended its economic sanctions against Russia for six months, after the Kremlin had failed to fully respect a peace agreement in east Ukraine.

    The sanctions target Russia's financial, energy and defense sectors as well as some dual-use goods.

    Despite a cease-fire declared in February, Ukraine says it still has not regained complete control over its border with Russia and that Russian-backed rebels are not respecting the cease-fire conditions.

    The …

  • Peskov denies reports of military interference

    Russia didn't send military experts to Ukraine, said the President's Press Secretary, Dmitry Peskov. He claims that the Russian presence in the southeast of Ukraine consisted entirely of volunteers. According to Interfax, those were his comments on the words of Vladimir Putin during his end-of-the-year press conference on December 17th. Putin said that the Russian citizens fighting alongside the separatists in eastern Ukraine were there as volunteers, though he also admitted to the presence of …

  • Kremlin Envoy: Crimean Tatar Mejlis no longer recognized

    On Saturday, Representative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Oleg Belaventsev, stated that the Crimean Tatar Mejlis no longer represents the interests of the Crimean Tatar people, and has been replaced with the Crimea Interregional Civil Movement.

    The Crimean Tatar Mejlis is the highest executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatars, and was officially and explicitly recognized as such by the Ukrainian Rada in March of 2014. While the Mejlis was legalized in 1999, its influence had …