President Vladimir Putin is convinced that the lifting of sanctions against Russia is dependent upon German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.

This was reported by Deutsche Welle and was based on reports by German political scientist and an expert of the German Council on Foreign Relations, Stefan Meister.  Meister notes that Putin’s administration believes that Merkel has become the main obstacle to the lifting of these sanctions.

“According to Putin, the main problem is Merkel.  In the event that …

The European Union Ambassador in Russia, Vygaudas Usackas, believes that the recent statements made by Kadyrov against members of the Russian opposition "are unacceptable in a democratic society."

The Ambassador believes that authorities should immediately respond to the statement of the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, against the opposition and the politician Mikhail Kasyanov.

According to the EU office in Moscow, during a telephone conversation between Usackas and Kasyanov, the Ambassador …

One of the world's leading suppliers of food, personal care products, and household products, Unilever, has invested 8.3 million Euros in a tea factory in Gostomel (Kiev region). According to a statement made by the company Unilever Ukraine, the factory should begin operations in the second half of 2016.

"Unilever will start running its own tea factory in Gostomel. Work on the project was initiated by Unilever in mid 2015, and at the present time the investment made in the tea factory already …

Iran has withdrawn the procurement of T-90 tanks from Russia from their agenda.  The Commander of Land Forces of the Iranian Army, General Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan, said on Tuesday that Iran will focus on the production of their own tanks. 

“Due to the fact that our own production facilities completely satisfy our needs, the purchase of the T-90 tanks was removed from the agenda,” Mehr News Agency quoted General Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan as saying.

At the same time, the General stressed that T-90 …

Russia's Finance Ministry refuses to support a significant portion of the draft anti-crisis plan prepared by the Ministry of Economic Development. RBC reports that in the Finance Ministry’s address to the government it categorically objected to 37 items in the 86-point plan. The total value of rejected items was 210.2 billion rubles.

The most expensive demand rejected involves funding agriculture with an additional 23 billion rubles. A similar decision concerns an additional subsidy of …