• Merkel wants to question Putin about Russia's role in hijacking Ryanair plane over Belarus

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel believes that Russia's role in the story of the forced landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk and the subsequent arrest of opposition blogger Roman Protasevich remains unclear. "It is well known that there are close relations between Belarus and Russia," she said at a press conference following the EU summit on Tuesday, May 25. As an example, confirming Moscow's possible involvement, Merkel mentioned the fact that some passengers of the plane did not fly to Vilnius …

  • Russia wants to use prison labor for construction projects

    Russian Justice Minister Konstantin Chuychenko said the Russian penal service was right in proposing to use prison labor on large construction sites.

    The Russian government believes that "correctional centers" can be set up on large construction sites and prisoners with the necessary qualifications will perform construction work.

    At the same time, according to the minister, it is necessary to move quickly and "create workplaces in all directions”, including large investment projects, which …

  • Russia deploys three long-range Tu-22M bombers to Syria

    Three long-range Tu-22M3 bombers landed at a Russian air base in Syria. The Russian Defense Ministry said that the Tu-22M3 bombers arrived at Khmeimim airbase for the first time. The Russian Defense Ministry added that the arrival of the bombers was possible after the upgrade of the second runway. The runway was lengthened, received new coating and new lighting and radio equipment were installed on it. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the airbase can now be used by aircraft of all …

  • Kremlin: Putin is ready to discuss Crimea with Zelensky

    Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to discuss cooperation on Crimea with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky not the ownership of Crimea, said the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov on air of Rossiya 1 TV channel.

    "If we discuss Crimea in terms of the development of cross-border cooperation, you know, Russia has cross-border cooperation with other countries, in this regard, I am sure that Putin will be ready," Peskov said.

    Peskov added that "no one will ever …

  • Lukashenko urges Putin to save Belarusian ruble

    The threat of a full-fledged currency crisis in Belarus forces the self-proclaimed President, Alexander Lukashenko, to make concessions on the key direction of integration with Russia, in which he has been holding defense for years. This is the ability to control and print his own national currency.

    After the imposition of US sanctions, which cut off the Belarusian economy from a fifth of export revenues, Lukashenko began to cautiously hint at the need to help maintain the Belarusian ruble …