Новости за 18.10.2017

MOSCOW — Ksenia Sobchak — the socialite, journalist, former opposition figure and daughter of Vladimir Putin’s political mentor — announced her candidacy for president on Oct.18, courting a protest vote in a presidential bid that appeared to be officially sanctioned by the Kremlin. Read more here.

BRUSSELS – European Union leaders will demand on Oct.19 that North Korea end its nuclear and ballistic weapons programme, according to the draft final statement of an EU summit. Read more here.

Police on the evening of Oct. 18 again clashed with protesters at their tent camp near the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament in Kyiv, and for some time prevented demonstrators from entering the camp. Meanwhile, President Petro Poroshenko refused to meet with lawmakers representing the protesters to discuss their demands. Potesters are calling for the creation of an […]

Ksenia Sobchak, a Russian television presenter and socialite, said she will run for president next year in an ostensible challenge to Vladimir Putin that is likely to split the opposition. Read more here.

All eleven protesters who were detained by the police near the Verkhovna Rada building on Oct.18 afternoon have already returned to the tent city. Activists went past the police cordon on Hrushevsky Street in downtown Kyiv unhindered and joined the rest of the protesters around 19:50, Mikheil Saakashvili’s Movement of New Forces told Interfax-Ukraine. “Saakashvili […]

Ukrainian scientists are proposed to take part in the preparation of the sixth evaluation report on climate change. Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine Ostap Semerak claimed this in the result of the meeting with Chairman of inter-governmental panel on climate changes (IPCC) Jonathan Lynn as the press service of Ecology Ministry reported. […]

MOSCOW — A Russian celebrity TV host shook up the country’s political scene on Oct. 18 by announcing her presidential bid, a move that would likely boost public interest in the race but could further fragment the nation’s beleaguered opposition. Read more here.

The Ukrainian army has incurred its worst daily losses since the start of the new ceasefire with pro-independence insurgents in eastern Ukraine, official figures showed on Oct. 18. Read more here.

Today a clash between the protesters under the Ukrainian Parliament and the law enforcers occurred, as a part of the protesters looted the special equipment belonging to the National Guard on Oct.17, including 80 shields, as head of National Police in Kyiv Andriy Kryshchenko told 112.UA. Read more here.

WASHINGTON – US Attorney General Jeff Sessions refused on Oct. 18 to answer lawmakers’ questions about his discussions with President Donald Trump on Russia and denied lying to Congress about his own contacts with Russians during the 2016 election campaign. Read more here.

Unidentified persons have sprayed tear gas near the tent city which activists set up on Oct. 17 on Hrushevsky Street in downtown Kyiv. Activists believe that the tear gas is a provocation, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported. Police have detained three participants in the rally, activists also said. Law-enforcement structures have yet to comment on this incident. […]

Socialite and reality-TV star Ksenia Sobchak said she plans to run against Vladimir Putin in presidential elections in March, declaring herself the representative of those who want to vote “against all” the other candidates. Read more here.

WASHINGTON – US Democratic lawmakers called on Oct.18 for a congressional committee to issue subpoenas to the White House and three companies for documents about fired national security adviser Michael Flynn. Read more here.

A protest against the words of President Miloš Zeman on annexed Crimea was held near the presidential residence in Prague, Czech Republic, as Radio.cz reports. Read more here.

UNITED NATIONS – The United States said on Oct.18 it would push the United Nations Security Council to renew within days an international inquiry into who is to blame for chemical weapons attacks in Syria, setting the stage for a likely showdown with Russia. Read more here.

The checkpoint ‘Zolote’ in Luhansk region will be opened in the near future. This decision was made at the meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) in Minsk on Oct.18 as First-Vice-Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada and representative of Ukraine on the humanitarian subgroup at the TCG Iryna Gerashchenko reported at Facebook. Read more here. […]

Head of Department of Consular Support at the Department of Consular Services of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Vasyl Kyrylych calls on Ukrainians to refrain from traveling to Russia, which has become a “danger territory,” according to an UNIAN correspondent. Read more here.

OSCE SMM monitors spotted six tanks of unknown type near the separatist-held village of Zernove, 70 kilometers south of Donetsk. Read more here.

French pharmaceuticals company Sanofi Aventis says it may have to stop trading in Ukraine due to what it calls “continued financial raidership” that has “arrested or withdrawn” Hr 180 million from its subsidiary in the country. In a press release, the drugs company said that “at the very least, payments to suppliers and delivery of […]

Abu Anis only realised something unusual was happening when he heard the sound of explosions coming from the old city on the western bank of the Tigris as it runs through Mosul. Read more here.

Bosnian Serb lawmakers have passed a nonbinding resolution insisting on the “military neutrality” of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s ethnic Serb-dominated entity, as part of an effort to oppose the country’s potential membership in NATO. Read more here.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has dismissed Ihor Razynkov, First Deputy Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). The relevant decree dated Oct. 17 was published on the website of the Ukrainian president on Oct. 18. Earlier in October, Poroshenko dismissed Pavlo Pashkovsky from the post of deputy head of the SVR.

Ukrainian MP Boryslav Rozenblat has said that the term of the measure of restraint against him expired and promised to continue to facilitate the investigation into the criminal proceedings involving him. “The term of the measure of restraint against me expired on October 16, 2017. However, in order to prevent possible dirty insinuations by some […]

Pavlo Hryb, a 19-year-old Ukrainian citizen allegedly kidnapped by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in Belarus, will remain in custody in Russia’s Krasnodar region until Jan. 4, the press service of Krasnodar District Court said on Oct. 18. Hryb was abducted in Belarus and ended up in a Russian jail in late August, after his father, […]

Sebastian Kurz won Austria’s election by talking bluntly about immigration. Now on the verge of becoming chancellor — and Europe’s youngest leader — he will not change his style. Read more here.