The recent Zapad 2017 large-scale Russian-Belarusian military exercises are evidence that Russia is preparing for offensive operations, said Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz, as reported by Ukrinform.

“The Zapad 2017 exercises ended two months ago. They were held in the space between the Arctic Ocean and the Black Sea, and even involved the launches of Iskander ballistic missiles, which can carry nuclear warheads. The Russians were not preparing for defense, but for aggression,” …

At the request of Russia’s Ministry of Justice, the Committee for the Prevention of Torture or CPT was fined 400,000 rubles for refusing to be registered as foreign agent, reported the head of the organization, Igor Kalyapin, writes Radio Liberty.

The CPT was previously named the Committee Against Torture. In 2015, human rights defenders reregistered the organization so that it would not have to be registered as foreign agent.

The organization is now being reregistered; therefore the fine …

Russian courts will sentence Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko to 20 years of imprisonment, stated his lawyer Mark Feygin.

"Tomorrow, the wife and daughter of my client, Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko will arrive to visit him. This will happen on the eve of the ‘court hearings’ where he is going to be sentenced to 20 years for ‘collecting information about the alleged Russian invasion of Ukraine’ [according to investigators] in the summer and fall of 2016," Feygin wrote on Twitter. …