• Russia gives Belarus $700 million loan ‘to strengthen friendly relations’

    The authorities of Belarus announced the receipt of a Russian-allocated loan of $700 million.

    "On September 15, 2017, the state financial loan from the Russian Federation was fully credited to the Ministry of Finance’s account," the Belarusian Ministry of Finance reported.

    The loan is granted to the republic for a ten-year period. In the order signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev it was noted that the money was allocated "in order to strengthen further friendly relations” and to allow the …

  • Kremlin to 'restructure' its financing of the separatist republics in eastern Ukraine

    The Kremlin admitted that it is "restructuring" the financing for the DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) and LPR (Luhansk People’s Republic), but stated that it would not stop providing the separatists with "humanitarian assistance."

    The Press Secretary for the Russian President, Dmitry Peskov said, "There is definitely redistribution" of funds, but this "does not mean a reduction in some areas" of financing, RBC news agancy reports.

    In clarifying the question about the amount of financing for …

  • Head of Naftogaz: Siemens refused to cooperate with Ukraine because of fear of losing Russian orders

    Siemens, under pressure from Russia, refused to continue supplying equipment for the modernization of the Ukrainian gas transportation system (GTS), Interfax-Ukraine reports quoting the head of the board of Naftogaz of Ukraine, Andriy Kobolyev, as saying.

    "The first compressors had already been brought in; they were Siemens compressors. But then Siemens called and said that if we brought them, then we would lose the Russian market," the head of Naftogaz said.

    According to him, the company had …

  • Kerry on the deployment of UN peacekeepers in the Donbas: We need to make sure that this is not a trap

    During the Yalta European Strategy (YES) Annual Meeting in Kyiv, Former US Secretary of State John Kerry stated that he  is concerned that the deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission in the combat zone in the Donbas may be unsafe and turn out to be a trap.

    "[With respect to certain UN forces], you have to be really careful that it is not a trap. If you’ve got this exclusively on the line of contact, then this can conceivably become the de facto recognition of this line of contact as meaning …

  • Security Service of Ukraine prevents the staging of a ‘fake’ protest in Kyiv

    Employees of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), together with the Ukrainian National Police, documented and stopped an attempt to conduct an "anti-Ukrainian action" in Kyiv by Russian Special Services, as reported by SBU on the department's website.

    The SBU stated that "law enforcers [have] established that Russian Special Services planned fake protests on behalf of the so-called "Assembly of mothers of Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) participants."

    "The pseudo-event was initiated and …