Russia fines the Committee for the Prevention of Torture for refusing to register as foreign agent

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 …


Lawyer of detained Ukrainian journalist Sushchenko says he will be sentenced to 20 years in Russian prison

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. …


Kyiv and Warsaw agree to reduce ‘black list’ of Ukrainians banned from entering Poland

Ukraine and Poland have agreed to optimize the list of Ukrainians who are banned from entering Poland. This was announced by Konstantin Eliseev, deputy head of Ukraine’s Presidential Administration, after a meeting with Krzysztof Szczerski, head of the Chancellery of the President of Poland, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

“We agreed to work together to optimize it. This will mean a significant reduction, because, in our opinion, historians and representatives of civil society should not suffer from …


New vote may be taken in UN to investigate chemical attacks in Syria

Diplomats of Sweden and Uruguay have prepared a new resolution which calls for a continuation of the UN investigation into who is responsible for chemical weapons attacks in Syria, as stated by the representative of the Russian mission to the United Nations, Fyodor Strizhovsky, TASS news agency reports.

According to him, two non-permanent members of the Security Council submitted a compromise proposal to restore the work of the UN Secretary-General’s Investigation Mechanism and the …


Washington: military assistance to Ukraine will be provided if Kyiv follows through with the reforms

US military assistance will be provided to Kyiv, subject to progress in key reforms of the Ukrainian defense sector, including the introduction of civilian control over the military, stated Republican Senator Rob Portman, reports Voice of America.

Portman explained what kind of assistance to Ukraine is embodied in the bill. According to him, it is the first time that defense assistance to Ukraine can be granted for strengthening protection at sea. It envisages the provision of air and coastal …