Georgia has high hopes for closer economic cooperation with Iran after international sanctions were lifted. Recently, Tbilisi abolished the visa regime with Iran, hoping to increase the flow of tourists from the south. Up until September 2014, tourists from Iran were bringing approximately 100 million dollars a year into Georgia.

Soon Georgia will also import Iranian gas, and a preliminary agreement was reached during a visit to Tehran with the Georgian Energy Minister, Kakha Kaladze.

Iran …

A high-alert warning was issued due to the threat of water scarcity in the east of Crimea, according to a decree of the Head of Crimea, Sergey Aksenov.  

“The alert was issued in the Republic of Crimea and detailed the increased readiness of the governing bodies and forces of the territorial subsystem in the prevention and liquidation of emergency situations.  This is due to the threat of natural disasters which require a response on a regional level,” this was stated in Aksenov’s order.

The …

Journalist, scholar and political analyst Andrei Piontkovsky has fled Russia, fearing possible criminal prosecution. The Russian Prosecutor's Office claims it has found signs of extremism in his article for Ekho Moskvii, his lawyer, Mark Feygin, said.

Earlier ,on February 19th, it became known that the Prosecutor General's Office found signs of extremism in Piontkovsky's article, "The bomb, ready to explode." In this article, which was published on the 23rd of January, the author addressed the …

One of the results of the negotiations of the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk was the cessation of the torture of the Ukrainian soldiers held in captivity in the Donbass region.  This was stated by the Commissioner of the President of Ukraine, Irina Herashchenko.

Herashchenko said that these prisoners, who are held captive by members of the so-called People's Republics in the Donbas, have stopped being tortured.  According to her, this was due to the negotiations in Minsk.

She said that the …

Bribes in Uzbekistan led to the second largest anti-corruption penalty in history.

Registered in the Netherlands, VimpelCom Holdings will pay a penalty to the governments of both the United States and the Netherlands for bribery in Uzbekistan.

Unitell LLC, a subsidiary company of VimpelCom Holdings in Uzbekistan, plead guilty to violating U.S. anti-corruption legislation as announced yesterday in a Manhattan Federal Court in New York.

The amount of the fine under an amicable settlement will …