• Putin and Kim Jong Un discuss economic cooperation

    The first round of negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vladivostok on Thursday lasted longer than planned. Mr. Kim traveled 684 km in an armored train to attend the meeting.

    “We have a lot to do to develop trade and economic relations, and to develop humanitarian contacts,” the Russian president commented before the start of the meeting.

    Putin congratulated Kim Jong Un on being reelected as the Chairman of the State Affairs Commission …

  • Kremlin: Russia strengthening troops in response to NATO activity near its borders

    Russia is increasing the number of troops in its Western and Southern military districts in response to active NATO operations near the country's borders, said the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, during the Moscow Security Conference.

    “To counterweigh the deployment of Alliance troops near Russia’s borders as well as the NATO initiative, we are forced to increase the number of troops in its Western and Southern military districts, RNS quoted Gerasimov. The …

  • Denmark stopped Nord Stream 2

    Nord Stream 2 AG, the operating company of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, has been forced to comply with the demands of the Danish regulator and submit an application to lay the pipe within Denmark’s exclusive economic zone in the Baltic Sea.

    This is the third such application that the company has submitted. Originally, Gazprom intended to lay the pipeline along the same route as the first Nord Stream pipe, but when it became clear that Denmark could simply prohibit the laying of this …

  • Latvia: Soviet Union’s deportation of Crimean Tatars in 1944 was genocide

    The foreign affairs commission of Latvia’s parliament, the Saeima, has given its support to a report by the Foreign Ministry which considers the Soviet Union’s deportation of Crimean Tatars in 1944 a genocide, TV-net reports.

    In addition, the commission has ratified a draft statement by Janis Dombrava, a member of the right-wing National Alliance, that “the USSR in the 20th century deliberately carried out a genocide against all the peoples and ethnic groups residing in the occupied …

  • US moves U-2 strategic reconnaissance planes to Europe

    Two U-2S ultra-high altitude reconnaissance aircraft belonging to the US Air Force crossed the Atlantic from mainland US and landed at the Fairford airfield in England on Tuesday, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

    The planes transferred from the Beale Air Force Base in California are named DRAGON86 and DRAGON88 and have the registration numbers 80-1071 and 80-1094 respectively.

    No official reason for the transfer of these two aircraft to Europe has been disclosed.

    Until recently, the Fairford …