Contents tagged with Russia

  • Ukrainian Supreme Court allows seizing Russian banks assets to recover losses in Crimea

    The Supreme Court of Ukraine allowed seizing shares of Russian financial institutions as compensation for the annexation of the Crimea, the press service of the Court reported. 

    In July last year, eighteen legal entities and one individual applied to the Kyiv Court of Appeals with the request to recognize and to grant permission for the implementation of the decision made by the International Court of Arbitration at the Hague. 

    According to the application, debtor banks hold some property in …

  • Tokyo: establishing US military bases in the Kuril Islands is only possible with Japan’s consent

    Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that if the South Kuril Islands are handed over to Japan, the creation of US military bases on those islands will be possible only after Tokyo gives its consent, RIA Novosti reported, citing Kyodo News Agency.

    The United States has the right to establish military bases in Japan. However, in the case of the Kuril Islands, the deployment location must be coordinated with the Japanese government, Abe stated. 

    Meanwhile, Abe gave no answer to journalists’ …

  • Russia prepares to kiss goodbye to multi-billion investments in Venezuela

    The US sanctions on PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, threaten to affect the Maduro government’s ability to repay its debts to Russia, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Storchak said on Tuesday. 

    According to Storchak, Venezuela has borrowed more than $3 billion from Russia in intergovernmental loans. 

    The debt had to be restructured in November 2017, when the repayment schedule became impossible for Nicolás Maduro, whose 6 year rule has seen the Venezuelan economy shrink by …

  • China refuses to finance $14 billion Gazprom megaproject

    Russian officials’ attempts to get through to Chinese investors in order to enlist their support in developing the economy in the East and overcoming western sanctions are continuing to fail for the fifth consecutive year. 

    The new negotiations to secure a Chinese loan for the construction of Russia’s largest gas processing plant in the Amur province have ended with yet another disappointment for the Russians. 

    Gazprom had hoped to pay for the Amur gas processing plant, which is scheduled to …

  • Russia: US sanctions on Venezuelan state oil company illegal

    Moscow has said that the sanctions imposed by Washington on PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, in an attempt to undermine Nicolas Maduro’s power, are illegal. 

    “The legitimate leadership of Venezuela has already described these sanctions as illegal. One can fully get behind this perspective,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. 

    The US Treasury Department said that the measures against the Venezuelan state-owned oil company were adopted in order to “change the …

  • Media: Russian Military Command behind the creation of Wagner private military company

    According to an investigation by the Bell newspaper, Evgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman known as “Putin's chef”, created the private military company (PMC), the  Wagner Group following the orders of Russia's high-ranking military leaders. 

    The very idea of creating a PMC was born at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in 2010. Eeben Barlow, the founder of Executive Outcomes, the world's first legal private military company, was also present at the forum. Barlow told the military about the …

  • Venezuelan Ambassador to Russia promises safety of Russian investments

    All investments of Russian companies in projects in Venezuela are totally safe, the Ambassador of Venezuela to Russia, Carlos Rafael Faria Tortosa stated in an interview with the newspaper Izvestia. 

    “I can say with full confidence that investments are totally safe,” the diplomat said. According to him, authorities “are in control of all processes” and the situation in the streets is calm. “They [ the projects] will also be protected by the Venezuelan Armed Forces, if necessary,” Tortosa added. …

  • Russian delegation arrives in Israel to discuss Syrian-Iranian issue

    A delegation from Moscow headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin and Russian President's Special Envoy Alexander Lavrentiev arrived in Israel.

    They were received at the Israeli Foreign Ministry by the General Director of the diplomatic department Yuval Rotem. The Kremlin envoys are expected to meet with the Israeli Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to Israeli sources, the parties will discuss "Syrian issues”.

    As reported on the …

  • Pro-Iranian and pro-Russian forces clash in Syria

    The Tiger Forces, an elite formation of the Syrian government army, have clashed with the 4th Armored Division, the Turkish Anadolu Agency reported, citing sources in Syria. According to the news agency, the Tiger Forces are backed by Russia, whereas the tank division, which is commanded by Bashar al-Assad’s brother General Maher al-Assad, is backed by Iran. 

    The encounter reportedly took place in Syria’s Hama province in the north-west of the country. Anadolu did not specify an exact date.  …

  • Ukrainian Security Service: Russian private military company Wagner active in Syria and Sudan

    The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has published documents belonging to mercenaries from the Private Military Company (PMC) Wagner which confirm that it is a secret detachment of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). 

    “Russia continues to lie shamelessly, trying to justify its crimes committed throughout the world. The Kremlin doesn’t stop ‘shouting’ that its GRU armed divisions are not protecting dictator regimes in Sudan and Syria, and were not involved in the killing of …