• Car production in Russia down 28% in 2015

    In December 2015, the production of passenger cars in Russia declined by 38.9% year-on-year and by 12.5% in comparison with the previous month.  These results were presented by the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, the Rosstat.

    According the Rosstat, the production of passenger cars in Russia saw a general decrease of 27.7% from 2014.  This amounted to 1.2 million units.

    In addition, the country produced 131 000 trucks last year – 14.7% lower than the previous year.  …

  • PACE Collects Signatures to Initiate Investigation into Nemtsov's Murder

    The deputies of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have begun collecting signatures to initiate a further investigation into the murder of a Russian opposition leader, co-chairman of the RPR-PARNAS, Boris Nemtsov. This was stated by the Deputy Chairman of the Alliance of European Liberal Democrats in PACE, Swedish MP Kerstin Lundgren, in an interview with Voice of America.

    She indicated that the collection of signatures is almost completed. According to procedure, in …

  • Strelkov: DPR and LPR Would Be Quickly Defeated By Ukraine If Not for Russian Support

    The former Minister of Defense of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, Igor Strelkov, believes that the armed forces of Novorossiya (New Russia) would be rapidly destroyed without the support of the Russian Army should the armed forces of Ukraine decide to attack. Strelkov stated this in his interview, published on the separatists’ social network page.

    “Based on available information, I regret to say that the DPR Army would be destroyed in few days. The DPR and LPR Armies, the so-called …

  • Separatists in Donbas use the exchange of prisoners as leverage over Ukraine

    Former President Leonid Kuchma, the second President of independent Ukraine and current representative of the Ukrainian government to the Trilateral Contact Group, stated that separatists in Donbas use the exchange of prisoners as leverage over Ukraine, when in fact many of those prisoners could be deceased by now.

    “The last time, we negotiated twice on the number of prisoners to be exchanged. Representatives of the separatists came and negotiations started anew. Delaying this process is their …

  • Despite Frequent Power Cuts, Russian Authorities in Crimea Say Electricity Supply Is 'Stable'

    Russian authorities in Crimea provided three straight hours of electricity to homes and called the power supply situation ‘completely stable.’ The press service reported on January 24th that industry works and that the supplied power came to 48 megawatts. The power supply priorities have changed.

    In the past, homes were disconnected from the electrical grid three times a day for 2 hours at a time. This was a problem because heavy frosts—17 degrees below zero—plagued Crimea.

    On the 30th of …