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Russia puts its air defense forces in combat readiness state
Russia has put its air defense and reconnaissance troops as well as strike units of the Armed Forces in high readiness state, reported by Ekho Moskvy, citing as a source the head of the State Duma Defense Committee Vladimir Shamanov. According to him, a possible missile attack by the United States on Syria is what prompted these actions.
Earlier on the same day, the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces announced the deployment of military police to the Syrian city of Douma in East Ghouta, …
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Ukraine's Naftogaz starts debt recovery from Russia's Gazprom
According to the Chief Commercial Officer of Naftogaz, Yuriy Vitrenko , Naftogaz of Ukraine has begun debt collection procedures aimed at recovering the funds which Gazprom has to pay to Naftogaz according to the decision the Stockholm Arbitration court.
The day before the announcement, Vitrenko met with the EU Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager. He told her that Gazprom refuses to comply with the decisions of the arbitration court and, in particular, refuses to compensate …
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Russia intends to create offshore zones to help oligarchs under sanctions
Russian authorities are discussing a project to create special offshore zones to support businessmen who fell under US sanctions, reported Vedomosti newspaper.
Vedomosti’s sources say that offshore zones could be establoished on Oktyabrsk Island in Kaliningrad and on Russky Island in the Far East. The draft bill was developed by the Ministry of Economic Development and it is now under peer review by the relevant departments. The Ministry plans for its adoption during the spring session.
As …
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Russia's Gazprom claims it doesn’t plan to stop gas transit through Ukraine
Alexey Miller, CEO of Gazprom, said that the company has never raised the issue of stopping gas transit through Ukraine, RIA Novosti reported.
According to him, Russia’s resource base is currently shifting “north”, so the central gas-transport corridor “won’t have the same level of resources.” Miller emphasized that the gas transit through Ukraine can remain at a rate of 10-15 billion m3 of gas per year, but Kyiv must justify “the economic feasibility of a new transit contract.”
German …
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Russia's Channel One takes its interview with former head of Pentagon off the air
Vladimir Pozner’s interview with Former United States Secretary of Defense William Perry was taken off the air. According to Pozner, the program would eventually air but he did not specify when that would happen, Meduza reports.
The program was scheduled to be aired on April 9 according to an announcement on Pozner’s website. The announcement has since been deleted but a cached copy was saved in Google’s search engine. Pozner’s explanation was that the management of Channel One decided the …