Contents tagged with Russia

  • US State Department calls on Russia to stop campaign against Crimean Tatars

    The US State Department has called on Russia to "stop the campaign against Crimean Tatars in the occupied Crimea", wrote US State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert on her Twitter account. "Russia should end its campaign against the Crimean Tatars in occupied Crimea and release all those imprisoned for opposing the occupation," the message stated.

    She also called for the release of Crimeans Rustem Vaytov, Yuri (Nuri) Primov, Ruslan Zeytullayev and Ferat Sayfullaev, who have been convicted …

  • China declares Silk Road through Russia unprofitable

    The project to create a Eurasian high-speed railway line from Beijing through Moscow to Berlin, which the Russian government planned to insert into China’s “New Silk Road” to the EU, is unprofitable.

    This was the conclusion reached by China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group (CREEC) after an analysis of the financial and technical conditions of the project.

    As RBC reports, citing a source in the government and in Russian Railways, the company presented its assessment to the Russian-Chinese work …

  • Media: Kremlin admits that Russian military participate in Donbas conflict

    The Russian Defense Ministry has paid for monuments to be erected over the graves of the Pskov paratroopers who were killed in combat in the Donbas in summer 2014. In this way the military department is effectively admitting that Russian soldiers were involved in armed aggression against Ukraine, an article published in the Russian news outlet Novaya Gazeta on June 24 observes.

    The authors of the article note that in 2014, nameless graves began to appear in the cemeteries of Pskov and the …

  • Media names date when Putin and Trump will meet in Vienna

    The Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung, citing a source, has named the date that the leaders of Russia and the USA will meet in Vienna. According to the newspaper, the summit will take place on July 15, and preparations have already begun.

    Kronen Zeitung reported that for the past few days, diplomats from Washington and Moscow have been arriving in the Viennese capital. They are working out the details of the upcoming meeting. To ensure the safety of the leaders while they are in Vienna, …

  • Media: US will not intervene in advance of Assad troops in southern Syria

    The United States informed Syrian rebel groups that they should not expect military support to resist the Russia-backed government, whose troops are advancing in southern Syria.

    A letter sent by Washington to the leaders of Syrian rebel groups said that the U.S. government would like to make it clear that “you should not base your decisions on the assumption or expectation of U.S. military intervention”, Reuters reports.

    Earlier, the United States warned Syrian President Bashar Assad and his …

  • Capital outflow from Russia reaches record level since annexation of Crimea

    Foreign investors are continuing to withdraw capital from the Russian equity and bond markets due to the tightening of Federal Reserve System (FRS) policy, the European Central Bank scaling down carry trades, and the risk of a global trade war. Over the week ending June 20, the sell-off rate of Russian securities by non-residents doubled, finanz.ru reports, citing data from EPFR Global (Emerging Portfolio Fund Research).

    Cumulatively, foreigners withdrew $520 million, a record amount since …

  • Kremlin promises to announce the date of the meeting between Putin and Trump

    The Kremlin would report on the meeting of US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as they are ready, as stated by the Press Secretary to the Russian President, Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the words of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, that the two leaders would meet in the near future after Trump's advisor John Bolton’s trip to Moscow, TASS reports.

    "We'll let you know as soon as we are ready," Peskov said.

    In an interview with SNBC TV, Pompeo said that Trump …

  • Sentsov refuses to ask Putin for pardon

    Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov, who has been sentence to 20 years in prison in Russia, refuses to write a petition for a pardon, stated his lawyer, Dmitry Dinze, reports Interfax.

    "Oleg is against a pardon. he will not write anything to the [Russian] President," Dinze said. According to the lawyer, Sentsov's condition remains unchanged.

    "He says he basically lays down, because he started having problems with his kidneys and heart. He had a crisis on the 26th day of the hunger strike. He was …

  • Kremlin: 11 Russian aircraft and helicopters returned from Syria

    11 Russian military planes and helicopters returned from Syria last week, arriving at their permanent bases in Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry reported as quoted by to RIA Novosti.

    “Eleven aircraft have returned to their permanent bases in the Russian Federation from Syria over the past week,” the Ministry informed.

    According to the Defense Ministry, the Russian warplanes flew to their base while the army aviation helicopters were carried by military-transport aircraft. Additionally, the …

  • Russian companies prepare to be disconnected from SWIFT

    Russia’s largest companies continue to report that they are ready for a possible disconnection from the SWIFT international payment system.

    Gazprom Neft announced that it has followed Rostec and Rosneft in transitioning to the Central Bank of Russia’s SWIFT equivalent - the Financial Message Transmission System (FMTS).

    The nearly 100% Gazprom-owned company, which holds the 4th place for oil extraction in Russia, has begun to use the Russian SWIFT equivalent instead of the traditional one, …