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UN: situation with human rights in the Crimea is not improving
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine continues to record violations of human rights in the Crimea and notes that there have been no improvements on the peninsula over that last 10 months, stated in an interview with Zerkalo Nedeli, Fiona Frazer, the head of the UN human rights mission in Ukraine.
The mission prepared its second report on the situation in the Crimea. This time they documented violations during the period from September 13, 2017 to June 30, 2018.
"The situation …
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Kremlin: Russia and Japan intend to continue work to conclude peace treaty
Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, said during a broadcast of Russia 1 TV channel that the negotiations between Moscow and Tokyo on the peace treaty will continue, RIA Novosti reports.
Peskov stressed that neither side has refused to continue negotiations to reach a consensus. He explained that each side has their own “limits” and nuances in their approaches. “But, strategically, Abe and Putin confirmed their intention to work on the conclusion of a peace treaty,” he …
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Banks of Cyprus allow Russians to withdraw funds from frozen accounts
Cypriot banks froze the accounts of Russians on the US’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) sanction list, but the account owners were also permitted to transfer funds to their own accounts in Russia, reports Russian RBC news agency, citing Costas Demetriades, Managing Director of the Cypriot consulting firm B2B Lateral Thinking Solutions, and confirmed by Paragon Advice Group partner Alexander Zakharov. “As far as I know, unlike Switzerland, the Cypriot banks released the …
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Japan tells Russia: dispute over Kuril Islands must be settled before any peace treaties are discussed
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposed peace treaty with Japan would be impossible without settling the territorial dispute, said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the pre-election debates.
The Prime Minister recalled that Tokyo’s position regarding the status of the South Kurils, what he called the “northern territories,” remains unchanged and he personally stated this during the meeting with Putin. “I expressed our position to Russian President Vladimir Putin. First, we should …
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Media: Every fourth Russian diplomat in Switzerland could be a spy
More than a quarter of the Russian diplomatic staff in Switzerland works for the foreign intelligence services of the Russian Federation, writes the newspaper Tages-Anzeiger after analyzing the Swiss government's report.
Back in March, the Bundesrat of Germany published a report on national security, which stated that "in relation to one country there is a suspicion that more than a quarter of the diplomatic personnel works for the special services."
The Bundesrat report did not mention the …