Новости за 22.03.2017

President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin a decade ago and proposed an ambitious political strategy to undermine anti-Russian opposition across former Soviet republics, The Associated Press has learned. The White House on March 22 acknowledged the AP’s revelations had […]

Yulia Samoilova, Russian participant in the Eurovision Song Contest, who was banned by Kyiv from entering Ukraine on March 22, does not lose hope and believes the situation may change. “It’s very funny to observe from a distance all that [the decision of Kyiv], because I don’t understand what they saw in me, such a […]

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on March 22 the United States would set up “interim zones of stability” to help refugees return home in the next phase of the fight against Islamic State and al Qaeda. Read more here.

The Kremlin’s official spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, denies that center-right French presidential candidate Francois Fillon received $50 million for arranging a meeting between Vladimir Putin, Lebanese billionaire Fouad Makhzoumi, and Patrick Pouyanné, the CEO of the energy giant Total, during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June 2015. Read more here.

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has amended legal acts to ensure a decision by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine to sanction Ukrainian-based banks with Russian state capital, respective NBU resolution No. 25 dated March 21 is to become effective from March 23. “The sanctions bar these banks from any financial operations […]

Lithuania and Ukraine have rejected Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s allegations that they were involved in what Lukashenko called a planned “armed provocation” in Belarus. Read more here.

Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers says it is determined to ban imports of thermal coal from the Russian Federation, Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Ihor Nasalyk told the online portal Reform.Energy in Kyiv on March 22. “A draft resolution is currently in the pipeline. A decision will follow,” he said when answering a question about […]

The decision by the Russian Federation to ban money transfers to Ukraine through the international payment systems without opening an account will not affect Ukraine’s banking system, First Deputy Head of the National Bank of Ukraine Yakov Smoliy told UNIAN. Read more here.

Here are findings from The Associated Press’ reporting on U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s work for a Russian oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Read more here.

London was thrown into chaos and confusion on March 22, with Britain’s Parliament placed on lockdown and the prime minister evacuated, as security officers investigated “a terrorist incident” that left one woman dead and several other people injured. Read more here.

This story is a reflection of Russian reality. An eight-minute interview with Zakhar Sarapulov, a post-graduate student at the History Faculty of Moscow State University, who flew a Ukrainian flag on the third anniversary of Crimea annexation, shows the real state of affairs in Russia. Read more here.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has refuted the statements by the Belarusian leadership alleging that militants were prepared on the territory of Ukraine. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry in a comment issued on March 22 by its press service notes that such statements “are provocative and harmful to the development of good neighborly relations between Ukraine and Belarus.” […]

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe will consider the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in the cases “Lutsenko vs. Ukraine” and “Tymoshenko vs. Ukraine”, Head of the Council of Europe’s Head of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights Pavlo […]

A quarter of people who have tuberculosis in Ukraine are unaware they have the disease. Every third child detected with tuberculosis (TB) has a multidrug-resistant form of the TB, a form of the disease resistant to most antibiotics, making it difficult and costly to treat. And Ukraine has one of the worst rates of infection […]

Parliament’s anti-corruption committee on March 22 approved an amendment that will require activists of non-governmental organizations and editors of mass media to file electronic asset declarations. The legislation is seen as an effort by the authorities to crack down on their critics and anti-corruption activists. The amendment, which is opposed by Yegor Sobolev – chairman […]

Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy a lot of stuff in Ukraine. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s ranking of the cost of living in 133 major cities, Kyiv — with a population of 3 million people — is the eighth cheapest major city in the world. The ranking is based on the […]

Ukraine’s parliament on March 21 passed a draft law that introduces the legal definition of a “strategically important road” that is important for the defense of the country. A list of such roads is to be drawn up by the Cabinet of Ministers, according to the text of the bill. The legislation was submitted to […]

Fighting has died down significantly in the war zone in eastern Ukraine over the past 24 hours, with Russian-backed forces returning to sporadic artillery barrages and attacks with small arms on Ukrainian positions. The Donetsk sector of the front line remains the main hotspot for fighting, Colonel Andriy Lysenko, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense spokesperson, said […]

Claims of Russia’s Gazprom against national joint-stock copany Naftogaz Ukrainy in the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce total around $50 billion and potentially they could expand to $80 billion, Naftogaz Ukrainy Chief Commercial Director Yuriy Vitrenko has said in the online interview with Novoye Vremia. “They demand around $50 billion from us […]

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin a decade ago and proposed an ambitious political strategy to undermine anti-Russian opposition across former Soviet republics, The Associated Press has learned. The work appears to contradict assertions by the […]

A group of congressional Republicans is teaming up with Russia-backed politicians in Eastern Europe with the shared goal of stopping a common enemy: billionaire financier George Soros. Read more here.

Washington – Intelligence obtained in recent weeks found that an al Qaeda affiliate was perfecting techniques for hiding explosives in batteries and battery compartments of electronic devices, according to a US official. Read more here.

The Verkhovna Rada has appealed to the U.S. Congress regarding security guarantees for Ukraine. Some 232 people’s deputies supported the corresponding resolution on the appeal to the Congress at the plenary session of the Ukrainian parliament on March 22, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reports. “In accordance with the spirit and language of the Budapest Memorandum, as […]

BRUSSELS—U.S. and Belgian officials have grown increasingly worried about the prospect that a key figure behind the 2016 Brussels bombings is plotting a new terror attack, according to people briefed on the investigation. Read more here.

Non-affiliated People’s Deputy of Ukraine Andriy Artemenko claims that he refused the Canadian identity card, but at the same time remained a citizen of Canada. “I do not have passports of other countries. I have a passport of Ukraine. I had a Canadian passport that I had to suspend in 2014, as required by the […]