EU summit calls on Russia to accept responsibility for downing of flight MH17

The leaders of 28 EU member states called on Russia to accept responsibility for downing Malaysian Boeing 777 flight MH17, which was shot down in the skies over the Donetsk region on July 17, 2014.

The EU Council published a statement on their website outlining conclusions of the first day of the summit held in Brussels, attended by EU heads of state and government. “The European Council reiterates its full support for the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2166 concerning the …


Warsaw: Poland is far from a joint historical declaration with Ukraine

The common historical declaration between Ukraine and Poland "is not even visible on the horizon,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Bartosz Cichocki said, the Polish edition of Wpolityce reported.

"In a dialogue with Ukraine, we got stuck on the issue of an administrative ban on conducting search and exhumation. This prohibition shows how different our views are on historical truth," he says.According to Cichocki, the question of a common historical declaration is not being …


Russia threatens to close France 24 TV channel

Russia's state media regulator Roskomnadzor threatened to stop broadcasting France 24 TV chanel the day after the French Superior Council of Audiovisual (CSA) issued a warning to the Russian channel RT France for inaccurate reporting on Syria.

Roskomnadzor stated that the French channel violated Russian legislation, Russian media reported.

Roskomnadzor employees allegedly found that the editorial activity of France 24 is directed by a foreign legal entity. This violates Russian law on the …


Lavrov: Russia does not set time limits for its military presence in Syria

Russia does not set artificial time limits on its military presence in Syria but it gradually reduces the length of presence there, depending on how the situation develops "on the ground,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with British Channel 4.

When asked if Russia troops could be expected to withdraw from Syria by the end of the year, Lavrov gave a negative reply.

"No. And I do not think that this is a topic on which we can conduct a sensible dialogue. We do not …


Putin’s rating falls by 15% in two months

In June, the approval rating of the activities of the Russian President Vladimir Putin fell by15% compared to the data for April 2018. This is evidenced by the results of the poll conducted by the Russian Levada Center on June 22 to 26 this year.

According to sociologists, the peak of Putin’s popularity was in March 2018 when he had an 80% approval rating. Since then, there has been a decline in approval ratings in general, including those for leadership activities since March, general …