• Crimea and Syria plan to create a joint shipping company

    The Crimean authorities are working to create a shipping company with the participation of Syria, stated the head of the Russian government of the peninsula, Sergey Aksyonov, on December 8, on the sidelines of the United Russia Party congress.

     “The process is already underway,” the Russian news agency TASS quoted Aksyonov.

    Earlier, Aksyonov and the Syrian Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade Mohammad Samer al-Khalil signed a memorandum on trade and economic cooperation.

    The Ministry of …

  • Russia changes its explanation of attack on Ukrainian ships in Kerch Strait

    Russia closed the Kerch Strait before the attack on the Ukrainian ships in order to “the prevent provocative actions” which could been directed at the Kerch Bridge, stated Alexei Volsky, the Head of the Coast Guard Department of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), Interfax-Ukraine reports.

    “It is related to the prevention of provocative action that could be committed by the Ukrainian Navy ships near the Kerch Bridge and undermine the safety of navigation in the Kerch–Yenikale canal,” …

  • UK suspending ‘golden visa’ program for wealthy Russians over corruption and money laundering concerns

    After December 7, the British government will suspend granting of privileged visas to foreign investors, which allowed rich people to reside in the United Kingdom.

    The Voice of America writes that, initially, the condition for obtaining a Level 1 visa was an investment of at least two million pounds sterling ($ 2.5 million) in the UK. This also gave such persons the right to bring family members to the country for an initial term of more than three years with the possibility of renewal, and …

  • Russia refuses to recognize captured Ukrainian sailors as prisoners of war

    On Saturday, the Head of the Russian Investigative Department of the FSB, Mikhail Shishov stated at a broadcasted briefing that Russia would not recognize the Ukrainian sailors detained on November 25 in the Kerch Strait as prisoners of war.

    “The Ukrainians are trying to present their soldiers as prisoners of war, but these Ukrainian citizens were accused of a criminal offense. In accordance with the Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, signed at Geneva on August 12, 1949, they …

  • Ukrainian President urges the US and EU to ban Russian ships from entering their ports

    The President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko urged the EU and the US to prohibit Russian vessels from entering European and American ports.

    In an interview with Fox News, he stated that this should be the response to Russia’s actions in the Black and Azov seas, which he labeled as “aggression.” According to Poroshenko, Russia continues to block the Azov sea, for ships of the European Union as well.

    The Ukrainian President once again urged NATO to send ships to the Black Sea, and for the West to …