• EU Foreign Ministers agree on five principles for cooperation with Russia

    The EU Diplomacy Chief stated that member states support the five key principles for building relations with Russia. Italian and Hungarian Foreign Ministers spoke out against the automatic prolongation of sanctions against Moscow.

    On March 14, at the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, discussed with the Foreign Ministers of the member states the five principles for cooperation with …

  • Bezsmertnyi: Ukraine distributed 34 billion hryvnia in welfare to the breakaway regions in 2015

    In 2015 Ukraine distributed a total of 34 billion hryvnia ($1.2 billion)  in the form of pensions and other welfare benefits to the inhabitants of the occupied parts of the Donbass region. The representative of Ukraine in the political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group, Roman Bezsmertnyi, reported this data on Radio Freedom.

    According to Bezsmertnyi, the budget funds work on the Russian economy. "500 billion is the country's budget and 34 billion went nowhere, in the 'hole'. In the end, …

  • McCain fears that Russia will again focus on Ukraine after withdrawing troops from Syria

    US Senator John McCain is worried that Russia will turn its resources and attention to Ukraine following the Kremlin’s announcement that the main part of Russian troops will withdraw from Syria, Glavnoe reported with reference to Ukrainian TV channel “112”.

    According to McCain, Russia’s bombing campaign in Syria destroyed enough of the opposition to ensure that the al-Assad regime will stay in power.

    The US Senator and Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee also accused the White …

  • Russian court sentences opposition leader to community service for ‘insulting public officials’

    A Russian district court in Ryazan sentenced the leader of the local PARNAS branch, Yuriy Bogomolov, to 250 hours of community services for insulting judges on social media, RIA Novosti reported.

    According to investigators, in August of 2015, Bogomolov posted on the Russian social network site VKontakte, in which he “publicly insulted and degraded the honor and dignity of the authorities” of the judges of the Moscow District Court of Ryazan, as well as judges of the Ryazan regional court “in …

  • PACE calls for Savchenko's immediate release

    The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has called on Russia to immediately release former Ukrainian pilot, Nadiya Savchenko.

    “The continued detention of Savchenko is only worsening Russia’s international image and its relations with European countries. Savchenko’s release would be a strong move towards complying with the Minsk Agreements. It would also be a step towards resolving the current conflict in eastern Ukraine. Russia should not waste this opportunity,” a statement …