• Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs calls for stronger sanctions against Russia

    The Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Dion, stated that Ottawa favors maintaining and strengthening sanctions against Russia, Maclean’s reported. Speaking at the opening conference at the University of Ottawa in Canada, the Minister reported about the effectiveness of sanctions against Russia due to the fact that a large number of countries supported the sanctions.

    “Sanctions, imposed against Russia because of the situation in Ukraine, are effective only because a large number of …

  • Latvia blocks website of Russian news agency 'Sputnik'

    Authorities in Latvia called the agency an instrument of Russian propaganda and misinformation. The decision to block the website is related to sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union.

    Latvia denied the agency the right to use the domain .lv for the news portal Sputnik Latvia, as reported by internet portal Delfi on March 29th. As reflected in the official letter received by the management of Sputnik Latvia on behalf of the NIC registrar, "registration of the domain name sputniknews. …

  • Washington has ruled out exchanging Russians in US prisons for Savchenko

    Washington is not considering the possibility of exchanging sentenced Ukrainian Pilot, Nadiya Savchenko, for Russians convicted by the United States."We do not consider this possibility," the spokesman for the US Embassy in Moscow, Will Stevens, told RBC. The US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, in turn, has called reports of such talks "ridiculous," RIA Novosti reported. Earlier, Interfax, citing informed sources, reported that Moscow is negotiating the exchange of Savchenko for a group …

  • Russian Defense Ministry to award medals to those who participated in the Syrian operation

    The Ministry of Defense of Russia plans to give medals to the participants of the military operation in Syria. To this end, the Defense Ministry has announced its plan to purchase more than 10,000 medals according to the procurement website of the Russian Federation. It is noted that the Ministry of Defense is willing to pay more than 2 million rubles ($29,000) for this order.

    Russia has conducted airstrikes in Syria since the 30th of September, 2015.

    As previously reported, Russian bombers …

  • Japan criticizes Russia's decision to place armaments on Kuril Islands

    Japan expressed concern about the statement made by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu about the plans to deploy missile systems on the Kuril Islands. "We informed the Russian party through diplomatic channels that we are concerned about the statement of the Head of the Defense Ministry," the Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan, Suga Yoshihide, said on Monday. According to him, Tokyo made it clear to Moscow that the strengthening of the Russian military infrastructure within the disputed …