The Free Trade Area between Ukraine and the European Union came into effect on Friday, January 1st. The accord is part of a broader EU Association Agreement that was signed in 2014, but the parties took a one-year pause on Russia's request for consultations with the country, which failed.

The agreement eliminates 97% of tariffs on Ukrainian goods and reduces the average tariff on Ukrainian exports from 7.6% to 0.5%, according to Ukraine's Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.

The free …

 Russian Federal Security Bureau (FSB) agents and Roskomnadzor’s employees found two batches of pears at the Troitsk checkpoint in the Chelyabinsk region. The shipment of pears falls under the Presidential Decree issuing retaliatory sanctions, the Rosselkhoznadzor press service reported.

Fresh pears from Belgium were imported to Russia by two cars from Kazakhstan. Kazakh certificates, indicating Serbia as the country of origin, were attached to them. The total weight of the two batches was 40 …

The Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Witold Waszczykowski, stated in a radio interview that the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, initiated by the Russian Federation, is one of the main threats for Poland in 2016. “It wasn’t Poland that created the ice age, nor was it responsible for attacking other countries and it was not us who sent little green men to other countries in order to take away part of their territory,” Waszczykowski said.

“Therefore, if we are talking about problems, they …

Russia suspended the visa-free policy with Turkey effective the 1st of January 2016. The Presidential decree suspending the visa-free policy with Turkey is now in force. As noted by RSN Ankara, in response to Moscow's decision, Turkey is now refusing visas for Russian citizens. The bilateral visa-free agreement has been in place since 2011.

As previously reported, Russian authorities announced the abolition of the visa-free regime after a Russian Su-24 bomber was shot down by the Turkish Air …

Russian Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev signed a decree detailing the discounted price of natural gas shipments from Russia to Ukraine. The tariff rates will remain the same until March 31, 2016. The documentation was posted on the official legal information web portal on Friday, January 1st.

The decree provides a formula that makes it possible to calculate the rate of fees on imports of low-carbon, “blue fuel” gas to Ukraine.

Most economists agree that, based on the contract price of gas at …