Contents tagged with Russia

  • US State Department: Russia does not understand law on foreign agents

    Russia is misinterpreting the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which creates transparency but does not restrict freedom of speech or prevent the spread of information, an official US State Department representative told TASS.

    The State Department spokesperson was commenting on the amendments adopted in Russia which make it possible to recognize overseas media as foreign agents.

    According to the representative, in official Russian statements this bill is connected to the demand to “ …

  • Russia prepares to recognize Radio Liberty project Krym.Realii as a foreign agent

    The Russian Ministry of Justice of Russia has sent a notice to the Radio Liberty project Krym.Realii as well as Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir service that the two publications may be recognized as foreign agents, reported RIA Novosti, citing a source in the department.

    The projects Idel.Realii and Kavkaz.Realii, Voice of America, and Current Time, a joint project between Radio Liberty and Voice of America, as well as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty were also warned earlier.

    The day prior, the …

  • WADA refuses to lift suspension of Russia’s anti-doping agency

    The Foundation Board of the World Anti-Doping Agency or WADA decided not to restore the rights of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency or RUSADA.

    Leaving in force the decision on RUSADA, the Foundation Board noted the absence among Russian sports functionaries of the "unconditional recognition of the conclusions from the McLaren report," the BBC reports.

    RUSADA activity was suspended in November 2015 after the independent WADA commission published a report that revealed a state-supported system of …

  • Lavrov admits that Russia has no proof of U.S. collusion with ISIS

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov admitted that Moscow has no evidence of U.S. collusion with ISIS militant terrorists, reported Interfax news agency.

    At the same time, the Russian Foreign Minister noted that the actions of the Western coalition led by the United States in Syria makes Russian aviation tactics more difficult.

    According to the news agency, Lavrov responded to reporters’ questions about a British Air Force report that 250 ISIS militants were allowed to leave the city of …

  • Washington: US State Department follows up the adoption of Russian law on foreign agent media

    The Department of State is closely following the fate of the Russian law on foreign agents, RIA Novosti reports, citing a department representative.

    "We are closely following this bill to see whether it will be adopted and how it will be implemented," he said.

    According to him, the State Department informed its Russian partners that "FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act in the United States) promotes transparency without limiting freedom of speech."

    Previously, the State Duma adopted, in …

  • Serbia wants to recognize the Crimea as part of the Russian Federation

    Serbian Parliament Deputy Alexander Šešelj informed Russian newspaper Izvestia that his country's politicians wanted to officially recognize the Crimea as Russian.

    The Serbian Radical Party drafted a statement for the forthcoming meeting of the National Assembly of the Serbian Parliament that intends to emphasize the difference between the "reunification" of the Crimea with Russia and the violent secession of Kosovo.

    "Belgrade cannot expect Moscow to support the disputed territorial issues …

  • Russian Duma rules that foreign media can be recognized as foreign agents

    The State Duma of Russia, in its third and final reading, adopted an amendment that will allow the Russian Ministry of Justice to recognize foreign media as foreign agents, Dozhd TV reported.

    The vote was unanimous. A total of 414 deputies voted for the adoption of the law.

    According to the document, “legal entities registered in a foreign state” and “foreign structures without the formation of a legal entity” can be declared as foreign agents. The Ministry of Justice will be empowered to do …

  • Russia will undertake restructuring of Venezuela's debt

    Russia and Venezuela have signed an intergovernmental protocol to restructure Venezuela's debt, as  reported on the Russian Ministry of Finance's website.

    The new schedule assumes that a debt of $3.15 billion will be repaid within 10 years. The volume of payments will be minimal during the first six years.

    The Ministry of Finance explained that the restructuring of the debt "will allow for the allocation of funds for the development of the country's economy, to improve the debtor's solvency, …

  • After speaking with Putin heads of LPR and DPR agreed to prisoner exchange with Ukraine

    DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko and LPR leader Igor Plotnitsky expressed support for a prisoner exchange with Ukraine, which was proposed by "Ukrainian Choice" movement leader Viktor Medvedchuk, during a conversation with President Vladimir Putin, as reported by the Kremlin’s Press Service.

    In their support for the initiative, the heads of the unrecognized LPR and DPR noted that they would need to work out this issue with Kyiv, the report said.

    It became known earlier that Russian President …

  • Media: Wagner Group commander becomes CEO of Putin’s friend’s catering business

    According to SPARK-Interfax, a person by the name of Dmitry Valeryevich Utkin became the CEO of LLC Concord Management and Consulting on November 14, replacing Anastasia Sautina. The new manager’s name and patronymic coincide exactly with those of the presumed commander of the Wagner Group private military company.

    RBC news agency sent an official information request to Yevgeny Prigozhin’s representatives. An RBC source close to Prigozhin confirmed that the new CEO is in fact the Wagner Group …