Contents tagged with Russia

  • Two Russian billionaires decline invitation to meet with Putin 

    Two Russian billionaires were unable to go to the Kremlin to take part in President Vladimir Putin’s annual meeting with the country’s top businessmen. 

    Petr Aven, head of Alfa-Bank’s board of directors with an estimated $5.1 billion according to Forbes, and Yandex co-owner and CEO Arkady Volozh ($1.5 billion) declined to attend the meeting which took place on Wednesday, December 26. 

    “I’m just not in Moscow, I am very far from Moscow. There is no special reason,” Aven told TASS. 

    A source …

  • Ukraine suspends martial law 

    December 26th, at 14:00, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that martial law, which was enacted due to Russian attack in the Kerch Strait, had been discontinued in regions of the country.  

    “Now at 14:00 martial law has stopped. This is ultimately my decision. It is based on all the components of the current security situation in the government,” said Poroshenko during a meeting of the Council of National Security and Defense of Ukraine. 

    On November 25th Russian border guards  …

  • Ukraine imposes additional sanctions against Russia 

    The National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine approved the introduction of additional sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities. The decision is made in connection with the incident in the Kerch Strait, as well as with the holding of elections in the self-proclaimed LPR and DPR. 

    The press service of the National Security Council of Ukraine specified that the sanctions are imposed on those Russian companies, businessmen, politicians and deputies, law enforcement …

  • Russia warns Ukraine and NATO against sending ships through the Kerch Strait

    Moscow called on Ukraine and its Western partners to abandon the new attempt to send naval ships through the Kerch Strait.

    At a press briefing, the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, called the possible passage of Ukrainian ships through the Kerch Strait "a reckless initiative", RIA Novosti reports.

    Zakharova also noted that the "Western supervisors" of Kyiv should come up with a way of "reasoning with the ruling regime" in Ukraine in order to make them abandon the …

  • Russian State Duma proposes a constitutional review to Putin 

    Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the leadership of the State Duma and Federation Council. Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin proposed to him that the Russian Constitution needed an overhaul and that legal experts should be called in to evaluate its relevance to the current reality. 

    “25 years ago is the time when such questions could have be answered,” TASS cites Volodin as saying. The Deputy claimed that judges from the Constitutional Court, scholars in the Constitutional Right and …

  • China rejects transition to settlements in national currency with Russia

    The redirection of Russia’s economic policy to the East, announced after the annexation of Crimea and the sharp deterioration of relations with the West, has ended up as a wake-up call. 

    The attempt to get China involved in de-dollarization and to formalize the transition to reciprocal trade in national currencies has not been successful. 

    China refused to sign the intergovernmental agreement to settle in national currencies that was drafted in 2014 and already considered a “done deal” by …

  • Kremlin claims NATO increased the number of high-precision strategic weapons near Russian borders

    NATO countries, especially the USA are building up their military activities near Russian borders and deploying high-precision, strategic weapons systems, said Admiral Vladimir Korolyov, Commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy, reported the RBC. 

    Korolyov said the Russian Fleet’s development plans will be implemented next year, considering “the deployment of missile defense systems, strategic non-nuclear systems of high-precisions weapons, and military infrastructure facilities in the adjacent …

  • Moldovan President Dodon counts on Russian peacekeepers to ensure stability in Transnistria

    Moldovan President Igor Dodon wrote on Facebook after a meeting with the President of unrecognized Transnistria, Vadim Krasnoselsky that he considers Russian peacekeepers in Transnistria a defining factor of stability in the region. 

    "[We] reaffirmed the importance of preserving the existing peacekeeping operation as a factor in maintaining stability and peace in the security zone. It was also noted that some challenges occurred in the area this year, but with joint efforts we managed to …

  • Russia calls Israel's air strikes on Iranian military bases ‘a flagrant violation of Syria's sovereignty’

    In a statement published on Russian Foreign Ministry’s website, the Kremlin stated that the attacks by Israeli warplanes in the vicinity of Damascus are a "flagrant violation of the sovereignty" of Syria, as well as the provisions of the UN resolution.

    "We are extremely concerned about both the fact of the strikes and the way they were carried out. This is a flagrant violation of Syria's sovereignty and the provisions of UN Security Council resolutions, including resolution 1701, " the …

  • Kremlin: Russian government lost trust in Belarus 

    Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that the Russian Federation has lost trust in Belarus. 

    According to him, this is due to the fact that Belarus has been violating the Russian-Belarusian customs regime, including the import of sanctioned and excisable goods into the Russian Federation. 

    “We keep telling Belarus that they are our neighbor, our ally, but we have recently lost trust in Belarus. All those solvents, sanctioned products that come to us, excisable goods, cigarettes that …