The Baltic states and Poland are advocating that new sanctions be imposed on Russia in connection with its capturing of Ukrainian sailors near the Kerch Strait, said Estonian Foreign Minister Sven Mikser, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine.

“Estonia’s position is that the countermeasures, the sanctions on Russia in connection with the situation in the east of the country and the illegal annexation of Crimea, must be maintained until the inflicted damage has been compensated, until Russia returns …

On Friday 18 January, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas will travel to Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, and then to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, Deutsche Welle reports.

In Kyiv, the ministers will discuss the situation in the Donbas and the progress of reforms in Ukraine. No other details of Maas’s visit to Ukraine were given.

In Moscow, the central topic of the negotiations will be the future of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces …

In an interview with the Ukrainian magazine Novoe Vremya, Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev discussed the progress that has been made in the implementation of the Stockholm Arbitration Institute’s ruling that awarded Naftogaz $2.56 billion.

“Gazprom has tens of billions of dollars in property abroad. We have already seized it to an amount which exceeds the amount of Gazprom’s debt to us,” UNIAN cites Kobolyev as saying.

Kobolyev explained that in the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK, Gazprom’s …

The Polish Interior Minister, Joachim Brudziński called on the European Union and NATO to work towards a common position on whether the Chinese corporation Huawei should be excluded from their markets, RMF FM reports. 

Brudziński made the statement after a Chinese citizen, a worker of the local Huawei department was arrested on charges of espionage. However, the representative of Polish Special Services announced that the charges were not directly related to Huawei. 

"NATO has also concerns …

Serbian security forces detained a man in the town of Novi Pazar in  Southern Serbia, who was suspected of being a militant of Islamic State, reports the Serbian news outlet the Informer citing its source. Serbian Security forces suspect him of plotting to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

According to the newspaper Kurir, 21-year-old Armin Alibashevich was detained by police on January 15. A scoped rifle was found in his backpack, leading the police and the Security Intelligence …