The European Parliament voted for the recommendations of the “Eastern Partnership” summit to create a model of the “Eastern Partnership Plus” for Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.

Over 519 deputies of the European Parliament voted for it, 114 were against, 47 abstained, UNIAN reports.

It is suggested in the EP report to create a model for countries that have association agreements with the EU and have made significant progress in implementing reforms, which "ultimately can lead to joining the …

Serbian Parliament Deputy Alexander Šešelj informed Russian newspaper Izvestia that his country's politicians wanted to officially recognize the Crimea as Russian.

The Serbian Radical Party drafted a statement for the forthcoming meeting of the National Assembly of the Serbian Parliament that intends to emphasize the difference between the "reunification" of the Crimea with Russia and the violent secession of Kosovo.

"Belgrade cannot expect Moscow to support the disputed territorial issues …

Ukraine needs to create an anti-corruption court in addition to fulfilling the requirements for obtaining the next tranche of the International Monetary Fund's loan, as stated by Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

"We were pleased to see that a number of very important reform laws have been adopted in Ukraine but much remains to be done. The efforts on establishing an Anti-Corruption Court should continue," he said.

Mitchell …

The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Andriy Parubiy addressed Wess Mitchell, the new Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs with a request to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons. Parubiy had the following to say on Facebook:

"I had a strategic and constructive meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell. This visit is a sign of great support for Ukraine from the US. I called on the US State Department to provide Ukraine …

The State Duma of Russia, in its third and final reading, adopted an amendment that will allow the Russian Ministry of Justice to recognize foreign media as foreign agents, Dozhd TV reported.

The vote was unanimous. A total of 414 deputies voted for the adoption of the law.

According to the document, “legal entities registered in a foreign state” and “foreign structures without the formation of a legal entity” can be declared as foreign agents. The Ministry of Justice will be empowered to do …

Russia and Venezuela have signed an intergovernmental protocol to restructure Venezuela's debt, as  reported on the Russian Ministry of Finance's website.

The new schedule assumes that a debt of $3.15 billion will be repaid within 10 years. The volume of payments will be minimal during the first six years.

The Ministry of Finance explained that the restructuring of the debt "will allow for the allocation of funds for the development of the country's economy, to improve the debtor's solvency, …

DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko and LPR leader Igor Plotnitsky expressed support for a prisoner exchange with Ukraine, which was proposed by "Ukrainian Choice" movement leader Viktor Medvedchuk, during a conversation with President Vladimir Putin, as reported by the Kremlin’s Press Service.

In their support for the initiative, the heads of the unrecognized LPR and DPR noted that they would need to work out this issue with Kyiv, the report said.

It became known earlier that Russian President …

Ambassadors from the Group of 7 (The US, Italy, Germany, France, the UK, Canada and Japan) released a statement calling on the Verkhovna Rada to make electoral reforms at least a year before the next elections.

“We applaud the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on the adoption on the first reading of the draft of Electoral Code No. 3112-1. We are of one opinion that the time has come to carry out electoral reform, in order to ensure at least a year for its implementation before the 2019 elections,” the …