• Finland Expects Thousands of Refugees to Enter Via Russia In 2016

    Finland’s national public-broadcasting company, Yle, cited the Lapland border service, who predicted that in the year 2016 about 7,500 refugees could enter Finland through the border with Russia. This forecast was made based on the current rate of arrival of asylum-seekers.

    Since the beginning of the year around 200 refugees crossed the Finnish-Russian border through the checkpoints Salla and Raja-Jooseppi. Most of the refugees were Iraqis, Afghans, Nepalese and Syrians. Last year 700 …

  • France Calls on Russia to Halt Airstrikes against Civilians in Syria

    After meeting with one of the coordinators for the Syrian opposition, Rayad Farid Hijab, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Laurent Fabius, told reporters that Syria and Russia must halt military operations against civilians. According to the Minister they have discussed the absolute need to halt military actions which Russian and Syrian Government forces are taking against civilians. Fabius specified that the discussion was focused on the small Syrian town of …

  • Poland to become NATO Response Force Framework State

    Poland will become part of the NATO Response Force within four years. The Polish Vice-Minister, Tomasz Szatkowski, reported that the Polish Ministry of Defense has already been preparing for this duty.

    “Our contribution to the framework will consist of five battalions. As a framework state, we want to invite our partners from the Visegrad Group to join this effort. There has been a prior agreement that part of these forces will be under the flag of Visegrad," the Vice-Minister, Tomasz …

  • Ukrainian Gas Company Files Lawsuit against Russia

    Ukrnafta has filed a lawsuit against Russia with the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, the Netherlands. The details of the lawsuit aren’t known. It was noted on the PCA website that the proceeding was initiated in accordance with an Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, signed by the Russian Federation and Ukraine in 1998.

    Moreover, according to the PCA database, eleven more Ukrainian companies (Stabil, Rubenor, Rustel, Kirovohrad-Nafta, Krym-Petrol, Pirsan, Trade- …

  • Pierre Richard to Visit Crimea

    Tickets to a show featuring Pierre Richard, a French actor and director, are being sold in Crimea. According to the advertisement, Richard will perform in a comedy called Pierre Richard III on February 10th in Simferopol at a local musical theater and on February 11th in Sevastopol, at the Officer’s Club of the Black Sea Fleet of Russia.

    There is no mention of any events taking place in annexed Crimea on the French actor’s official website. According to tour organizers, Richard will arrive in …