Pentagon blames Russia for dangerously close encounter between aircraft over Syria
Pentagon spokesperson Eric Pahon spoke about the dangerous encounter between Russian and American planes in the air over Syria, RIA Novosti reports.
He commented that Russian and US planes had come close to each other near the Syrian city of Abu Kamal, and had remained so for roughly 40 minutes.
“At one point a Su-25 came quite close to an F-22, and it needed to maneuver intensely in order to avoid a collision in the air,” Pahon noted.
The Pentagon spokesperson said that Russian planes fly …
Russia to restrict import of fruits and vegetables from Kazakhstan after ‘attempts to bring sanctioned goods through this country’
The Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor, Russian Federation) has announced its intention to ban the import of fruits and vegetables from Kazakhstan.
The regulator explained its decision is based on the increase in attempts to import banned products through Kazakhstan to Russia, as well as the import of food products with invalid or missing phytosanitary certificates.
Rosselkhoznadzor stated that in November 2017 it recorded several attempts …
Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office working to seize more funds belonging to Yanuckovych
In 2018, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine plans to confiscate UAH 5 billion of funds belonging to the former President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, and his entourage, as stated by the Prosecutor General, Yuriy Lutsenko, on ZIK TV.
"Next year, we will continue the special confiscation of assets belonging to Yanukovych’s organized criminal group, we hope to impound no less than 5 billion," Lutsenko said.
He also added that the government should take all necessary steps to disburse …
Canadian biathlon team to boycott competitions in Russia
The Canadian biathlon team has written a letter to the President of the International Biathlon Union (IBU), Anders Besseberg, informing the Union that the athletes intend to boycott the IBU World Cup in Tyumen, Russia, reported the Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
The reasoning for the boycott is the refusal of the IBU to punish the Russian team for numerous violations of anti-doping regulations discovered by the International Olympic Committee.
"The occurrence of high-level IBU events in Russia is …
Poland to support introduction of peacekeeping mission in Donbas at UN Security Council
At a briefing in Kharkiv after talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Polish President Andrzej Duda has said that his country, which will replace Ukraine on the UN Security Council beginning January 1, will support the initiative to introduce peacekeepers to the Donbas.
"We talked about political matters that are very important to us as a member of the UN Security Council for the next two years ... A very important idea that needs to be met is for a UN peacekeeping mission to start …