Section: Cyprus Mail (Cyprus)
Police stand by for now as Kremlin critic defies house arrest
By Timothy Heritage Ten days after cutting off his monitoring tag and declaring he would not stay under house arrest, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny says Russian police are standing by while he walks out of his door. Although the house arrest order has not been lifted since an embezzlement case against him ended in a suspended sentence on Dec. 30,...
Fighting intensifies at Ukraine airport, two soldiers killed
By Natalia Zinets Fighting intensified around the international airport in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Thursday as pro-Russian separatists stepped up efforts to dislodge government forces and Ukraine’s military said two of its soldiers had been killed. The complex, a battered wreck with its runways cratered by shell explosions, has not...
Ukraine steps up mobilisation, warns of renewed Russian ‘aggression’
By Richard Balmforth Ukraine’s parliament voted on Thursday to refresh its front-line forces and resume partial conscription after a top security official warned that Russian forces backing separatist rebels had sharply increased military activity in the east. “Russian aggression is continuing. There has been a significant surge in the...
EBRD faces rare loss due to Russia, Ukraine crisis
By Marc Jones The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will probably report its first loss since the global financial crisis due to turmoil in Russia and Ukraine, the development bank’s Vice President Andras Simor said on Wednesday. Simor told Reuters that a fall in the value of its Russian equity investments due to the...
Ukraine summit blocked by failure to implement truce fully
By Stephen Brown Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France have decided not to hold a summit on the conflict in Ukraine on Thursday because of a lack of progress in implementing a four-month-old ceasefire agreement. The Russian, German and French leaders had been invited to talks in the Kazakh capital Astana by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. But...
Interpol says Ukraine’s Yanukovich now wanted person
Interpol has put ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich on the international wanted list on Ukrainian charges of embezzlement and financial wrong-doing, according to a notice on the international police organisation’s website on Monday. Ukrainian authorities said Interpol’s publication of a so-called red notice against the...
Facing shrinking budgets, Pentagon moves to cut European bases
By David Alexander Facing tight budgets and a shrinking military, the Pentagon said on Thursday it was ending operations at an air base in Britain and handing it and 14 other sites in Europe back to their home governments in a move projected to save $500 million annually. The Pentagon said it would divest RAF Mildenhall northeast of London, home...
Belarus devalues currency again to protect against Russian economic fallout
By Andrei Makhovsky Belarus took further emergency steps on Thursday to defend itself from economic turmoil in Russia, devaluing its currency by around 7 percent for the second time this week, raising its main refinancing rate and imposing a new export tax on potash. Former Soviet countries are feeling the pain as Russia, often the main trading...
Ukraine says Russia behind cyber attack on German government
By Erik Kirschbaum Ukraine’s prime minister blamed Russian intelligence on Thursday for a hacker attack against German government websites, for which a pro-Russian group claimed responsibility. The attack on Wednesday took place before Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk was due to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Russian group...
Pro-Russian group claims cyber attack on German government websites
German government websites including Chancellor Angela Merkel’s page were hacked on Wednesday in a cyber attack claimed by a group demanding that Berlin sever official ties with the Ukrainian government. The attack, against which counter-measures were taken, had left the sites periodically inaccessible since 10 a.m. (0900 GMT), her...
