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Russian money-laundering scandal puts Latvia on verge of financial catastrophe
After becoming one of the primary “laundromats” for laundering shady capital from Russia, the Latvian banking system is now facing the threat of international isolation.
Due the scandal surrounding the country’s second largest bank, ABLV, which was caught transferring billions of dollars from Russia and former Soviet states into offshore accounts, Latvia risks being blacklisted by the FATF, observed the US ambassador to the country, Andris Teikmanis.
This blacklist includes governments that …
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US Senate calls for ‘tough operation’ to liberate Kerch Strait for navigation
The US Senate has called for a “tough operation” to liberate the Kerch Strait for navigation, with nearly half of senators urging President Donald Trump to take such a step, BBC reports.
The authors of the resolution, which was signed by 39 Senate members, believe that this is a necessary response to Russia’s actions in the Kerch Strait on November 25, when it captured three Ukrainian vessels and their crews.
The resolution was drafted by Republican Ron Johnson, head of the Homeland Security …
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Latvia publishes list of KGB agents
On December 20th, The National Archives of Latvia opened access to the KGB archives containing lists of agents of the Soviet special services.
The files in PDF format can be found at kgb.arhivi.lv.
The files of KGB agents in the Latvian USSR (a total of 10,612 files) have been published in alphabetical order. The archive includes the names of both active agents in the late 1980s and the excluded ones.
In this archive, there is also general information, which was entered by the First …
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Putin speaks about threat of nuclear war
The international arms deterrence system is on the verge of collapse, and this will lead the world to the “danger line” of a nuclear catastrophe, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at an annual press conference on Thursday.
In 2002, the US withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which had previously restricted the production of defense systems against nuclear missiles.
In response, Moscow “has been forced to respond by creating new weaponry systems” capable of bypassing the anti- …
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Russia: passage of Ukrainian ships through the Kerch Strait can ‘aggravate the situation’
The official representative for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova commented on the statement made by the Secretary of the National Security Council Oleksandr Turchynov that Ukraine is preparing another passage of ships through the Kerch Strait.
According to her, this can “aggravate the situation.” The spokeswoman for the MFA said that Turchynov’s statement is “provocative.”
“It [the statemen]) is absolutely irresponsible, and it is intended to aggravate the situation. …