Section: Voice of America (USA)
Russia Moves to Retaliate for US Sanctions
Russian lawmakers Tuesday unanimously approved, in first readings, legislation to retaliate against the United States and other Western countries for last month’s imposition by Washington of sanctions on some of Russia’s biggest companies and business people. One measure would empower the Kremlin to impose sweeping “counter-sanctions”...
Putin Drives Truck to Open New Russia-Crimea Bridge
Russian President Vladimir Putin drove a truck across a new bridge connecting mainland Russia to Moscow-annexed Crimea Tuesday, a project Ukraine has condemned as a violation of international law. Russian state television showed Putin behind the wheel of a construction truck with workers on the nearly 20-kilometer drive across the bridge, which...
Russian Bank Helps Venezuela Defy US Cryptocurrency Sanctions
Investors looking to buy Venezuela’s new cryptocurrency may want to head to a little-known Moscow bank whose biggest shareholders are President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government and two state-controlled Russian companies under U.S. sanctions. Evrofinance Mosnarbank has emerged as the only international financial institution so far...
Russia in Flurry of Diplomatic Activity Over Iran Deal
In the wake of President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Russia unleashed a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at keeping Iran and other remaining signatories committed to the agreement. But behind Russia’s diplomatic maneuvering, analysts see the Kremlin chasing rewards from...
Transatlantic Commission to Focus on Election Meddling
An international commission has formed to try to end meddling in elections in Western democratic nations by Russia and other autocratic countries. The Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity (TCEI), co-chaired by former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, held a news...
Separatists in Donetsk Celebrate Anniversary
Ukrainian separatists in Donetsk on Friday celebrated the fourth anniversary of the city’s self-proclaimed independence from Ukraine with a parade. Local residents who support the pro-Russian separatists came to the parade in the city center with black, red and blue rebel flags along with Russian flags. Ukrainian forces have battled the...
Trump Signs Holocaust Property Law That Has Angered Poland
U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an act that Jewish groups praise as helpful in their efforts to reclaim lost property in Poland, but which the Polish government says is discriminatory. The White House said on Wednesday that Trump signed the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today — or JUST — Act. It requires the State Department to...
Russian Tycoon Known for Faberge Eggs Tied to Cohen Payment
Outside the rarified sphere of the super-rich, tycoon Viktor Vekselberg is mostly known in Russia for spending more than $100 million to bring cultural artifacts back to their homeland, including an array of Faberge eggs glittering with gold and jewels. By Vekselberg’s standards, the money he laid out wasn’t all that much: His fortune...
Russia’s Putin Begins Fourth Term
Russian President Vladimir Putin was sworn in to a fourth term on Monday, extending his 18-year rule amid promises of continuity in foreign policy and renewed efforts toward building prosperity at home. During his swearing in ceremony at the gilded Andreyevsky Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace, Putin assured Russians that his rule had “revived...
Russia’s Putin Sworn In As President
Vladimir Putin, who has been either president or prime minister of Russia since 1999, was sworn in for a fourth term as president Monday at the Grand Kremlin Palace’s ornately-decorated Andreyevsky Hall with his hand on a gold-embossed copy of the constitution. He will not be able to run for a fifth term as president unless there is a...
