Contents tagged with Russia

  • President of Lithuania: deployment of Iskander missile systems in Russia’s Kaliningrad region poses a threat to Europe

    While speaking at a press conference, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaité stated that the Iskander Tactical Missile Systems that will be permanently stationed in the Kaliningrad region of Russia beginning February 5 will be a threat to Europe, Delfi reports.

    "Iskander missiles are being stationed in Kaliningrad for permanent presence as we speak. This is not just a threat to Lithuania but to half of all European countries," said Grybauskaité.

    NATO believes that the deployment of the …

  • Kremlin prepares bill requiring Russian citizens to monitor foreigner guests

    As the newspaper Izvestia reports, Russian citizens and companies will be required to monitor the behavior of foreign guests and partners, so that the purpose of their stay in the country and the terms of the visit correspond to those planned. Otherwise, violators will face fines.

    The draft amendments were developed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and it was supported by the government commission of legislative drafting.

    According to experts, it won’t be easy to check whether these …

  • Ukraine initiates criminal proceedings against German deputies for visiting Crimea despite travel ban

    The Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea has initiated criminal proceedings as a result of the visit of German deputies from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to the peninsula.

    The case has been initiated on the basis of an appeal from the Embassy of Ukraine in Germany concerning the violation of entry and exit procedures from the Temporarily Occupied Territory (p. 1 art. 332-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine prescribes up to three years of imprisonment).

    " …

  • Putin cancels Kyrgyzstan's debt of $240 million

    President Vladimir Putin signed a bill on the ratification of an agreement between the governments of Russia and Kyrgyzstan on the settlement of the latter's debts on loans. 

    The agreement writes off the remainder of Kyrgyzstan’s debt totaling $ 240 million. Russia already wrote off the first part of the debt, $188.9 million back in 2013. Nevertheless, Kyrgyzstan still owed $300 million.

    Since Kyrgyzstan was not able to repay the debt, the countries agreed to write it off by $30 million a …

  • Russian Prime Minister Medvedev: IOC has adopted a shameful decision in denying 'justified' Russian athletes from participating in the Olympics

    Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Facebook that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has adopted a "shameful decision" in refusing to invite 15 "justified" athletes and coaches from Russia to attend the Winter Olympics in South Korea.

    "The IOC Commission has adopted a shameful decision. Unjust and unlawful. Immoral and politically motivated. By denying our athletes, whose rights were reinstated by a sports court designed specifically to resolve such disputable situations, the …

  • Russian Defense Ministry accuses online publication Fontanka of disclosing information on pilot killed in Syria

    The Russian Ministry of Defense has criticized an article by the online news outlet Fontanka which it claims disclosed the personal details of the Su-25 assault jet pilot who was shot down in Syria on February 3. The Defense Ministry considers this a “violation of the elementary concepts of decency and the ethics of journalist activity”.

    “We are convinced that the law enforcement organs will give their assessment of what happened in accordance with Russian legislation,” RBC reported, citing …

  • Putin signs bill to integrate Armed Forces of self-proclaimed South Ossetia into Russian army

    Separate subdivisions of the armed forces of the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia were integrated into the army of the Russian Federation. The bill was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the press service of the Kremlin reported.

    The bill provides for the procedure for “the entry of separate units of the armed forces of the Republic of South Ossetia into the armed forces of the Russian Federation.”

    The bill concerning the Ossetian army joining the Russian Armed Forces was …

  • Former NATO Secretary General becomes advisor to Russian-owned bank in Latvia

    Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has been appointed Deputy Chairman of the Board at Latvian bank Norvik Banka, according to the website of the international intelligence community InformNapalm.

    Grigory Guselnikov, a Russian banker, is the owner of Norvik Banka; he also controls Vyatka Bank.

    In July, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) denied Grigory Guselnikov and Sait-Salam Gutseriev from purchasing the Ukrainian branch of Sberbank.

    "This bank [Vyatka Bank] recently tried …

  • Putin given a list of businessmen who wish to return home to Russia from UK

    Boris Titov, Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneurs’ Rights and leader of Party of Growth, said that some businessmen who are hiding in the UK from Russian justice want to return to their homeland. According to Titov, the list of their names was forwarded to the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, TASS reported.

    Titov had previously stated that he intended to petition for exclusion from Interpol’s lists those Russian entrepreneurs whose guilt seemed unproven.

    It’s not …

  • Russia finds Ukrainian footprints in the crash of Su-25 shot down in Syria

    Russian senator Igor Morozov has claimed that the surface-to-air missile system (SAM) that shot down a Russian Su-25 attack aircraft in Syria may have reached the rebels through contraband channels from the military arsenal in the Ukrainian city of Kalynivka, located in the Vinnytsia Oblast, RIA Novosti reported.

    Morozov suggested that the Ukrainian SAM came to Syria after a large-scale fire at the ammunition depots in Kalynivka.

    In the fall, the military warehouse in Kalynivka, Ukraine …