• Poltorak: Ukrainian Armed Forces will meet NATO Standards within Five Years

    In an interview with the Ukrainian News, Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak stated that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be able to reform within five years in order to fully comply with NATO standards. According to Poltorak, it will take three years to reform the Ministry of Defense.

    “How long will it take to reach the military standards and principles required to qualify for NATO membership? I believe that we can reform the Ministry of Defense in three years. We will need funding to …

  • Moscow: Kiev is aggravating the situation in Transnistria

    Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Grigory Karasin, expressed Moscow’s concern over the lack of progress in the negotiations on the Transnistrian issue, stating that the Ukrainian position has a negative impact on the situation in the region.

    "The change of Kiev's position on the Transnistrian issue supports the delay of an appointment of a new Ukrainian representative in the "5 + 2" negotiation that was supposed to happen in May of 2015. We are concerned about the …

  • 40 tons of Belgian pears destroyed at Russian border

     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 …

  • Waszczykowski: War in Donbas one of the main threats to Poland

    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 …

  • Turkish citizens no longer have visa-free entry to Russia

    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 …