• A group of Slovak MPs is set to visit annexed Crimea

    Several deputies from Slovakia have decided to visit the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed, from Ukraine by the Russian Federation, despite the ambassador’s warning that this would violate the law, reported Slovak SME (The Slovak Spectator) news outlet.

    Last week, a group of deputies, led by the independent MP Peter Marcek, announced that they are going to visit the Crimea in August. They also informed that they are planning to travel to the Crimean peninsula from Moscow.

    In response, …

  • Russia protests against Israel’s downing of Syrian aircraft

    Russia has voiced its protest after Israeli forces shot down a Syrian combat aircraft, according to a source from Maariv daily newspaper.

    The publication claims that Israel has provided Russia with proof that the Syrian aircraft crossed the border into Israel.

    On June 24 Israeli forces reported that they shot down a Syrian combat aircraft, allegedly a Su-22 or Su-24. According to Reuters, the aircraft’s pilot was killed. The plane ventured approximately 1.6 km into Israeli airspace. Israel …

  • Russia's Gazprom borrows pension money to pay off debt

    Gazprom, which has been cut off from international capital markets as a result of a gas dispute with Ukraine, has turned to Russians’ pension savings in order to make large foreign debt repayments.

    On Tuesday, for the second time since the start of the year, the Russian gas company has entered the Russian debt market and borrowed 40 billion rubles. Investors were offered three bond placements – a 15-year bond of 10 billion rubles, and two tranches of 15 billion rubles 30-year securities. …

  • Putin’s ‘Night wolves’ establish a military camp in Slovakia

    On the eve of the anniversary of the Warsaw Pact troops’ incursion into the territory of then Czechoslovakia, a group of the Kremlin’s propagandists from the biker club Night Wolves established a military camp near the capital of Slovakia, reported Radio Svoboda.

    Their camp is located sixty kilometers away from Bratislava in the Dolná Krupá village, not far from the border crossings of Slovakia, Austria and the Czech Republic. The camp is a big area enclosed with high fences with several …

  • Kremlin to allow Russian Defense Ministry to confiscate civilian vehicles for military use

    All of Russian citizens’ light vehicles are to be put on the military register, Russian news outlet Izvestia reports. The Defense Ministry has already drafted the corresponding document which introduces amendments to the list of vehicles which can be transferred to the army under martial law. The bill is currently undergoing interdepartmental coordination and anti-corruption examination.

    According to the bill, the list of vehicles taken into account by the military commissariats in peacetime …