Tag: Ukraine

Robert Work, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, told the House Armed Services subcommittee that Russia is “playing with fire” with its nuclear weapons rhetoric.

For the first time in four months, Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Barack Obama spoke on the phone. Putin made the call to discuss Iran, the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Syria, and violence in Ukraine.

The Pentagon will deploy 250 tanks, Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, and self-propelled howitzers to Eastern European countries near Russia, the U.S. Department of Defense announced on Tuesday.

The European Union extended sanctions on Russia until January 31, 2016, as the crisis in Ukraine continues to worsen. EU spokeswoman Maja Kocijančič said the group hopes the sanctions will push Russia to comply with the Minsk peace agreement.

Contents: Russia makes a controversial deal to lease Siberia land to China; Russia’s concerns about China’s ‘invasion’ of the Far East continue

Konstantin Goldentsvayg, the now-former Berlin correspondent for Russian state-owned television station NTV, was fired last week for an interview he gave with German media outlet Phoenix.

Russian officials this week warned of retaliation if America places tanks and weapons near Russian borders in NATO countries.

Fighting continues to escalate in east Ukraine as Russian soldiers and pro-Russian rebels violate the alleged peace agreement established in February as at least seven Ukrainian soldiers died and almost 30 were wounded in the fresh fights.

A new poll has found that Russian public opinion towards mass murderer Josef Stalin has turn alarmingly positive during the tenures of President Vladimir Putin, a leader who has publicly lamented the fall of the Soviet Union and invaded and reconquered multiple regions of various post-Soviet states.

Russian President Vladimir Putin used his trip to Italy to attempt to persuade Italian officials to end the sanctions against his country, which he claims hurt Italian businesses. He also snuggled close with disgraced politician Silvio Berlusconi.

The Group of Seven (G7) kicked off its annual summit this week with the situations in Ukraine and Greece on top of the agenda. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met privately on Sunday to hammer out details about the two countries.

Over the weekend, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to endorse Ukrainian sovereignty when he told Italian publication Corriere Della Sera that Donetsk and Luhansk regions should remain with Ukraine, but only under certain conditions.

Ukrainian LGBT activists held an Equality March in Kiev on Saturday, but faced brutal attacks from the opposition. Those who opposed the march attacked the activists even though President Petro Poroshenko voiced support for the march.

Russian Internet users, apparently manipulated by the Kremlin, began conspicuously surfacing online after Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea. These paid “trolls” work all day to flood online articles and social media with praises towards Russian President Vladimir Putin and condemnation of the West.

Russian reports forced the American navy to release a video of Russian planes flying close to the USS Ross in the Black Sea in order to prove it was only a “routine encounter.” Russia previously claimed America acts “aggressively” in the Black Sea and told world officials they can plant nukes anywhere in their territory, including Crimea.

The world and those in Odesa Oblast in Ukraine are still in shock that President Petro Poroshenko appointed ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as governor of the region.

Contents: Russia using mobile crematoriums to continue pretense about Ukraine; Russia’s economic crisis may force withdrawal from Ukraine; US-China military tensions get rapidly inflamed over South China Sea

An article by Bloomberg’s Josh Rogin has triggered wide disparagement from Moscow, where officials implied all involved in the publication of a piece reporting that Russia was using mobile crematoriums to erase the presence of soldiers in east Ukraine needed mental help. A day later, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that makes all Russian soldiers’s deaths a state secret, even in a time of peace.

(Reuters) Russia’s army is massing troops and hundreds of pieces of weaponry including mobile rocket launchers, tanks and artillery at a makeshift base near the border with Ukraine, a Reuters reporter saw this week.