Ukrainian business owners minimize their tax base by registering offshore companies and by keeping their foreign currency revenue in the accounts of companies registered in countries with a low tax load. According to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), more than a third of all foreign direct investments (FDIs) coming into Ukraine since the end of 2017 have come from countries with a low tax load. Furthermore, nearly 100% of direct investments from Ukraine have also been sent into low-tax …

Russia does not set itself the task of occupying Ukraine or part of it without the guarantee that the political regime in Kyiv will be replaced by one loyal to the Kremlin. Furthermore, Russia has neither the strength nor the resources for a large-scale offensive. Such an opinion was expressed by journalist Yuriy Butusov in an article for Zerkalo Nedeli (the Mirror Weekly).

“Today, holding the occupied territories, including the Donbas and Crimea, has become a huge burden on the Russian budget …

Russian lawmakers are trying to negotiate with Japan to prevent a series of legislative actions, which would disrupt an easing of relations, reported the chair of the Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev, according to RIA Novosti.

“We will definitely be continuing to discuss this matter, so that if possible certain legislative measures will not be allowed to pass, measures which would disrupt both countries’ efforts to move forward on the resolution of certain …

Roskosmos (Russia’s state space agency) has confirmed the arrest of Viktor Kudryavtsev, a scientist from the Central Research Institute for Machine Building (TsNIIMash), Russian media reported on Sunday, July 22.

“He is currently being investigated,” Roskosmos spokesman Vladimir Ustimenko told Russian news agency TASS. He did not provide any further details.

News came out earlier that 74 year-old Viktor Kudryavtsev, a scientist from TsNIIMash, had been sent to the Lefortovo pre-trial …

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a bill ratifying an agreement with the Netherlands regarding their international judicial cooperation. This decision will allow the Dutch to carry out a legal process concerning the crash of the Boeing 777 Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in Donbass in 2014, the president’s press office announced.

President Petro Poroshenko has signed bills “which ratify an agreement between Ukraine and the Kingdom of the Netherlands for international judicial …

The Israeli Air Force struck a military target near the city of Masyaf, Hama province, reported the Syrian state agency SANA with reference to a military source.

According to other Syrian sources, the  target of the air strike was the Center for Scientific Research near Masyaf that has been transformed since the summer of 2015 into the development center for Fateh-110 ballistic missiles of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

There are reportedly a number of dead and wounded in the ranks of the …

According to Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan, Ukraine is negotiating sanctions with the West against Russian Black Sea ports.

“We are holding negotiations with our European and American partners in order to impose appropriate sanctions against the Black Sea ports because of the blockade of the Azov Sea  for Ukrainian ships [ by Russia],” he said on channel 112 TV.

According to Omelyan, the wave of sanctions against Moscow is rising and the latest decision by US Congress …

More than 50 Moldovan mercenaries are fighting in the east of Ukraine for Russian for the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), reported the Moldovan publication Ziarul de Garda with a reference to data from the Security and Intelligence Service of Moldova (SIS). However, according to unofficial data, the number of Moldovan mercenaries in Donbass is close to 100 people.

As journalists note, mercenary activity in Moldova has intensified with the …