Finland, Estonia, and Latvia agree to establish regional gas market

The Estonian state-owned company Elering AS, which operates electrical and gas networks, stated that an agreement was signed with the energy companies of Finland and Latvia to the establishment of a Finnish-Estonian-Latvian gas market beginning 2020, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

It is noted that this agreement allows for a single gas tariff for gas transit between these countries and eliminates cross-border charges which means that next year gas will flow between Finland, Estonia, and Latvia at …


Bashar Assad and Marine Le Pen to visit annexed Crimea

Russia announced that French politician Marine Le Pen and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would visit annexed Crimea and take part in economic forum in Yalta as guests of honor. 

"The honorary delegations at the fifth Yalta International Economic Forum will be the French delegation headed by Marine Le Pen and the delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic headed by Bashar al-Assad. Sergey Aksyonov invited him [Assad] when we were there [in Syria] and got confirmation of his visit,” TASS agency  …


Erdogan complains that US puts pressure on Turkey because of purchase of Russian S-400 missiles systems

US authorities have been pressuring Turkey to refuse purchasing Russian S-400 missile systems, stated the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan before meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

“Everyone knows that American leadership puts a lot of pressure on us concerning this issue,” Erdoğan said, as quoted by RIA Novosti. 

Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that the Alliance is discussing alternatives to S-400 systems with Turkey. NATO has suggested Italian or …


Poland stops assistance to Belarusian opposition website Charter 97

On February 14, the Editor-in-Chief of the Belarusian opposition website Charter97.org, Natalya Radina was invited to the Polish Foundation for International Solidarity, where she was informed that the site could expect Poland’s support in 2019 to be reduced fivefold, as reported on the edition’s website. 

“Such a sharp reduction of the site assistance actually means its destruction. Poland helped us after the website editorial office was crushed in Belarus, our site’s founder Oleg Bebenin was …


Kyiv: absolutely no possibility that Russian observers can be allowed to monitor Ukrainian presidential elections

Martians have more chances to be present at the presidential elections in Ukraine than Russian observers do, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin wrote on his Twitter page.

“Martians have more chances to observe the elections. Of course, if they manage to go through all the procedures and join the OSCE. But they will definitely better adhere to the fundamental principles of the OSCE,” the minister said.

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow would offer the OSCE Office for …