Section: News & Summaries

      Ukraine Steps Up Efforts to Recover Stolen Assets Abroad
      Aug21

      Ukraine Steps Up Efforts to Recover Stolen Assets Abroad

      Two Kyiv-based women—a lawyer who heads a state agency created to reclaim stolen assets abroad and a social activist-turned-politician who’s made a career out of exposing official corruption—spoke August 20 in Washington about their efforts to clean up Ukraine.Olena Tyshchenko is director of the Agency for Asset Recovery at Ukraine’s...

      Russia, Not Ukraine, is the Questionable Partner
      Aug20

      Russia, Not Ukraine, is the Questionable Partner

      In its August 12 editorial, “Shaky Ukraine: Economics and Corruption Complicate Its War,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette calls Ukraine a “questionable partner” because of “resistance to economic reform and use of Islamist Chechen forces.” Too bad neither charge is true. …read more Source: Atlantic...

      Tax bill bankrupts Santa

      Finland’s Santa Claus Office has been declared bankrupt over unpaid taxes after a sharp drop in visits from recession-hit Russians. ||| Helsinki – Finland’s Santa Claus Office has been declared bankrupt over unpaid taxes after a sharp drop in visits from recession-hit Russians, once the centre’s best customers. But...

      Russia jails Estonian ‘spy’

      An Estonian police officer who says Russia abducted him in a cross-border raid was sentenced to 15 years hard labour for espionage. ||| Moscow/Tallinn – An Estonian police officer who says Russia abducted him in a cross-border raid was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday, stoking tensions between Moscow and the former Soviet...

      The Soviet Playbook in Ukraine
      Aug19

      The Soviet Playbook in Ukraine

      It appears that Russian President Vladimir Putin is losing the war in Ukraine. Gone are the talks about seizing so-called Novorossiya—the strip of land from Kharkiv to Odesa—and establishing a land bridge to occupied Crimea. Even though recent developments suggest a possible offensive to expand the territory Russia and its proxies now hold,...

      Queen shows no sign of stepping aside

      Those close to Queen Elizabeth say the 89-year-old has no intention of succumbing to the European fashion for abdication. ||| London – After 63 years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth next month becomes Britain’s longest-ruling monarch but there is little prospect of her stepping aside, as other ageing European crowned heads have done,...

      Diplomatic scandal: drunk German Diplomat shouted at policemen in Kyiv
      Aug19

      Diplomatic scandal: drunk German Diplomat shouted at policemen in Kyiv

      The German Embassy in Ukraine checks information on the possible involvement of the employee in conflict with police in Kyiv, Ukraine. This is stated in a message on the page Embassy in Facebook. “Currently German Embassy could not confirm the incident, we check the facts. In general, the employee of the German Embassy and staff are...

      Quads born to mom, 65, to go home

      Highly premature quadruplets born to a 65-year-old German woman are doing well and will leave hospital soon, a report said. ||| Berlin – Highly premature quadruplets born to a 65-year-old German woman three months ago are doing well and will leave hospital in a few days, media reported on Monday.German commercial television station RTL...

      “We want Ukraine to be a European country, not a Putin country,” Says Ukrainian MP
      Aug18

      “We want Ukraine to be a European country, not a Putin country,” Says Ukrainian MP

      World attention focuses on ISIS and Iran, with its half an atomic weapon. But the biggest geopolitical issue is Vladimir Putin, backed by thousands of nuclear weapons, who is gradually conquering Ukraine, a democracy with 45 million people the size of Germany and Poland combined.In just over a year, Russia has seized 9 percent of Ukraine, killed...

      US to launch drone program over Eastern Ukraine
      Aug17

      US to launch drone program over Eastern Ukraine

      Washington (AFP) – The US military will drastically increase drone flights over the next four years, in a bid to boost intelligence and strike capabilities across a growing number of conflict zones, the Wall Street Journal reported. “The Pentagon is planning to expand the number of daily flights from 61 at present to as many as 90 by...