• Naftogaz Hires Prominent US Attorneys

    National joint-stock company Naftogaz of Ukraine has engaged the law firm of Covington and Burling LLP (New York, USA) to protect the company’s interest in litigation concerning lost shelf assets in the Crimea. According to an announcement in the Visnyk Derzhavnykh Zakupivel public procurements bulletin, the gas transportation company signed a one-year agreement with the law firm on January 1st, 2016.

    The cost of the agreement is $1.25 million (value added tax not included). “The services that …

  • Russians continue to buy real estate in Turkey

    Citizens of Russia continue to buy real estate in Turkey, despite the recent crisis in relations between the two countries following the incident in which a Russian plane that was shot down for violating Turkish airspace. Last year, real estate sales to Russians totaled $398 million  worth of property.

    Fatih Elibol, senior manager at the international real estate investment consultancy Realty-TR, noted in an interview with an AA reporter that Russians continue to buy property in Turkey despite …

  • ISIL Loses 40 Percent of Its Territory in Iraq

    By the end of 2015, territories in Iraq controlled by the so-called Islamic State (known as ISIL or simply IS) had been reduced by 40%, as reported by Reuters. In Syria, ISIL lost 20% of its territory. This was reported by Colonel Steve Warren, a spokesman for the U.S.-led,anti-terrorist coalition.

    In 2014 the extremist group, then known as ISIS, captured one third of Iraq, including the town of Mosul and launched an attack on Baghdad. The blitzkrieg was stopped only because Iran’s Armed …

  • Ukrainian Citizens Have Filed More Than 700 Human Rights Complaints against Russia

    According to the Justice Minister of Ukraine, Pavel Petrenko, the number of civil cases against Russia is constantly growing. Additionally, Kiev officials have filed three interstate suits against Russia.

    On Tuesday, January 5th, in an interview with national media, Petrenko announced that citizens of Ukraine have submitted to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) more than 700 lawsuits against Russia. Moreover, almost all of the lawsuits were filed by people from Crimea, Lugansk and …

  • Coca Cola Sparks Anger with Map Showing Crimea as Russian

    The U.S.-based, multinational beverage corporation Coca Cola has apologized for the use of a map of Russia that includes the territory of Crimea on a popular social network. They said the map was developed by a third party agency without the company's consent.

    On January 5th, Coca-Cola responded to a statement by the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States, which included the complaint about the corporation’s use of the map. The company claimed that the agency that developed the map "later …