During last year, Russian authorities continued to oppress members of religious minorities and detained them on suspicion of extremism, as stated in the U.S. State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report.

Several U.S. citizens were fined and expelled from Russia for their religious activities. In particular, volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) were accused of publicly inciting attacks on representatives of other religions.

In addition, …

In an interview with the German daily newspaper Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel claimed that Christian Lindner, a leader among German liberals, is just trying to get headlines when speaking of the temporary postponement of the issue of Crimea's annexation, and that the main task at present is to achieve an ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. European Pravda reported this.

"In my opinion, Mr. Lindner is only concerned with headlines. We do not need debates on Crimea. We …

Thanks to a favorable climate and fertile chernozem—the black-colored soil containing a high percentage of humus—that makes up a third of the world's stock, Ukraine could become a huge export base of fruits and vegetables, both fresh and processed. This was reported by the US Department of Commerce in the report on the fruit and vegetable industry of Ukraine, Voice of America reports.

The report, which was based on market research in Ukraine, says that "Ukrainian companies are aware that they …

During his visit to Poland, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Army General Stepan Poltorak spoke with Lieutenant-General Frederick Ben Hodges, Commander of the US Army in Europe.

According to the report made by the press service of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry on Tuesday, August 15, Poltorak invited Hodges to take part in the celebration of the 26th anniversary of the independence of Ukraine, as well as the military parade that will be held on August 24 on Khreshchatyk street in Kyiv. …

In the first half of 2017, Russian Gazprom delivered 1,389 billion cubic meters of gas to the separatist DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) and LPR (Luhansk People’s Republic. The price of Russian gas as of the first quarter of 2017 was $306.6 per thousand cubic meters, as supported by the data from Gazprom’s report for the second quarter.

Ukraine has not been importing gas from Russia for more than 600 days, which means, all deliveries go to separatist-held territories of Ukraine.

According to …

In July 2017, about 267,000 tons of coal mined in the separatist-held territories of eastern Ukraine were exported to European countries from Russia, reported LIGA.net citing Russian Railway and Russian Federal Customs Service data.

The largest exporter of Ukrainian coal was Gaz-Alyans, controlled by Serhiy Kurchenko. In July, more than 50,000 tons of anthracite were exported from the Russia’s ports. The entire quantity was exported by the South Ossetian company Vneshtorgservis JSC, and was …

The Moldovan Foreign Ministry has denied media reports that the country's authorities intend to introduce a visa policy with Russia.

"The information that appeared in the media about the Moldovan authorities' intention to introduce a visa policy between the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation is not factual," the ministry explained.

Earlier, an article in Izvestia, cited sources stating that the Moldovan parliament was discussing the introduction of a visa policy for Russian …

Since August 9th, the Russian Federation President, Vladimir Putin, has not appeared in public, Dozhd reports.

"The Kremlin website publishes reports on the President's meetings, but journalists are not invited to attend. It has been reported that they have been recorded in advance. At the same time, there is no mention of Putin's vacation this year," the message says.

According to the channel’s report, the last time Putin appeared in public was on August 8th, and the next time will be when …