Contents tagged with Russia
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Kyiv: Russia has deployed 53,000 soldiers on Ukrainian border
Russia is maintaining vast military forces along the Ukrainian border, with as many as 53,000 soldiers there at the end of December 2018, reports Uninform with reference to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
“The Russian Federation is continuing to expand its military groups close to the Ukrainian state border. Notably, as of the end of December 2018, on Ukraine’s border and in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, 28 tactical battalion groups were deployed. The total number of the …
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Protesters in Moscow oppose Kuril islands handover to Japan
In Moscow there has been a series of solitary protests against the possibility of Russia handing over the Kuril islands to Japan, Radio Liberty reports.
Activists reportedly took to the streets with banners outside the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Duma, and the Border Guard Academy.
According to Sergey Ponomarev, a member of the “Russian Kurils” movement, the protesters are “concerned about Russia’s territorial integrity”. They do not approve of Russia beginning the peace …
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Russia arrests US citizen on charges of espionage
Russia announced on Monday that its intelligence agency had arrested a US citizen in Moscow on suspicion of espionage.
According to the FSB, the American was arrested on Friday “while carrying out spying activity”.
Charges have been brought against him according to article 276 of Russia’s Criminal Code (Espionage), which envisages a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
The suspect was identified as Paul Whelan, but no other details were provided.
The US later asked to be granted consular …
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Russia threatens to retaliate if US deploys missiles in Europe
Russia will respond if the US deploys nuclear missiles which are prohibited by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in Europe, warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as reported by Interfax.
Lavrov said he “regrets European countries’ refusal to support the preservation of the treaty”.
“Our European colleagues… are not yet ready and follow the US even in cases where it clearly goes against their own interests,” he remarked.
“All of the EU voted against our proposal [ …
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Putin classifies Russia's weapons procurement
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed off amendments to the law “On the state defense order,” which now classify weapons, military equipment and ammunition procurement as a secret, even when bought for the National Guard or the Interior Ministry.
According to the state arms program signed by Putin in 2017, out of the 22 trillion rubles ($316 billion) allocated to the state defense order for the next 10 years, 19 trillion will go to re-arming the army, and 3 trillion will go to law …
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Ukrainian Interior Minister agrees to be questioned by the Russian Prosecutor’s Office in exchange for the extradition of Yanukovych
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said he is ready to be questioned in the case of alleged interference in the Russian presidential elections. In exchange, he demanded that the Russian Prosecutor's Office extradite former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych who is suspected of high treason in Ukraine.
“I am ready to testify in the so-called case on interfering in the elections of Putin in exchange for the extradition of Ukrainian citizen Yanukovych,” Avakov wrote on Facebook.
The …
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President of Belarus Lukashenko congratulates Putin on the successful union of the two nations
In his New Year’s greeting to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that the union between the two nations has been successful, the press service of the Belarusian leader reported.
Lukashenko noted that in the upcoming year, the two countries will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of signing the agreement on establishing the State Union. According to him, Belarus and Russia have had an uneasy path “but we can now say with confidence that the …
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Gazprom CEO: Nord Stream 2 will be operational by January 2020
Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller is convinced that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will start supplying Europe with gas by January 1, 2020, Interfax reports.
“We are working according to the plans that were approved from the very beginning. The planned start for gas shipments is January 1, 2020,” Miller said.
Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin also said that he is prepared to work no matter how the situation develops with the US.
“We are working constantly under these circumstances. Our job is risk management,” …
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Austrian Chancellor: Lifting of sanctions against Russia must be linked with the resolution of the situation in Donbas
In an interview with the Rheinische Post, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said that the gradual lifting of sanctions against Russia should be linked with the process of resolving the situation in the Donbas.
“When I was a foreign minister, I believed that it was necessary to link the gradual lifting of sanctions against Russia with positive steps towards Ukraine – something that former German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier proposed. The first step would imply establishing a real …
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Putin is ready for dialogue with Trump
On Sunday, December 30th, the Kremlin press service reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin in a New Year’s message to his American counterpart Donald Trump confirmed Moscow’s openness to have a dialogue with Washington.
“In a congratulatory message to the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, with Christmas, and New Year holidays in tow, Vladimir Putin stressed that Russian-American relations are critical to ensuring strategic stability and international security …