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 …

There will be a continued depreciation of the national currency in Ukraine, and the exchange rate may reach 30-35 UAH to the US dollar, as stated by economist, Elena Slezko, in her commentary for GolosUA.  She also stated that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) plays a considerable role in this situation.

“Everything depends on the government’s actions and how long the IMF will delay the next tranche as we are very dependent on that money,” she noted.  “All developing economies use a number …

Authorities in Moscow have evicted the Center for Adaption and Training of Refugee Children after its managing committee was deemed to be a “foreign agent”, as reported by Radio Svoboda.

The Center is a project of the non-governmental organization Civil Assistance Committee. When the center’s director, Olga Nikolaenko, arrived at work on Thursday, she found that employees of the city’s property department were barring the center’s workers from entering the building.

“The front door to the …

Ukrainian intelligence says that the deployment of sabotage and intelligence activities to Mariupol is associated with the preparations for an amphibious operation as reported by the press service of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense.

"The 9th Division motorized rifle regiment (in Novoazovsk city) of the 1st corps has been strengthened with units from the 810th Division Marine Brigade of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation," the statement said.

It was …

European countries will increase their military budgets by an average of 8.3%, primarily due to Russian foreign policy. This is the first time in 20 years that military expenditures will go up in Europe. Expenditures will increase mostly in Eastern European, particularly in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.  The military budget of these seven countries will increase by 20%.

This was stated on the 19th of February by Defense News citing the report of …