Former President Leonid Kuchma, the second President of independent Ukraine and current representative of the Ukrainian government to the Trilateral Contact Group, stated that separatists in Donbas use the exchange of prisoners as leverage over Ukraine, when in fact many of those prisoners could be deceased by now.

“The last time, we negotiated twice on the number of prisoners to be exchanged. Representatives of the separatists came and negotiations started anew. Delaying this process is their …

The deputies of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have begun collecting signatures to initiate a further investigation into the murder of a Russian opposition leader, co-chairman of the RPR-PARNAS, Boris Nemtsov. This was stated by the Deputy Chairman of the Alliance of European Liberal Democrats in PACE, Swedish MP Kerstin Lundgren, in an interview with Voice of America.

She indicated that the collection of signatures is almost completed. According to procedure, in …

Russian authorities in Crimea provided three straight hours of electricity to homes and called the power supply situation ‘completely stable.’ The press service reported on January 24th that industry works and that the supplied power came to 48 megawatts. The power supply priorities have changed.

In the past, homes were disconnected from the electrical grid three times a day for 2 hours at a time. This was a problem because heavy frosts—17 degrees below zero—plagued Crimea.

On the 30th of …

Norwegian authorities temporarily stopped the deportation of refugees that had come into the country from Russia, reported the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. According to ministry representatives, Russia expressed a wish to discuss the coordination of refugee return procedures at greater length, so their deportation is suspended until further notice.

This week it became known that Norway began to send back to Russia those immigrants who crossed the Russian-Norwegian border and in recent months …

On January 24th, police in Dagestan blocked an attempted demonstration rally by followers of Sagid Murtalzaliev, who was declared wanted in connection with terrorism. One of the organizers, Ahmed Pasha Amirilaev, reported in his interview with Ekho Moskvii that the police had stopped people who supported Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov. Amirilaev did not confirm information that police officers tore up posters of Putin and Kadyrov.

The …