Section: Voice of America (USA)
US Urges Serbia, Slovenia to Diversify their Energy Sources
The United States has encouraged Serbia and EU-member Slovenia to diversify their energy sources away from Russian gas to make sure any potential disruptions will not hurt their economies, a senior U.S. official said Friday. Wrapping up a tour of Slovenia, Serbia, Kosovo and Albania, Mary Burce Warlick, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of...
Trump Doubts Russia is Trying to Manipulate US Elections
U.S. Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump, in an interview on a Russian controlled television channel, expressed doubt about the contention that Moscow is trying to manipulate the November general election with cyber attacks. The interview, broadcast Thursday on RT America, occurred one day after Trump praised Russian President Vladimir...
Russia Holds Large-scale Military Drills in Crimea
Russia on Friday deployed cruise missiles, multiple rocket launchers, tanks and its latest anti-aircraft system at massive military drills in Crimea. Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014 and since then has sent thousands of troops and heavy weaponry there. The Russian defense ministry invited dozens of journalists...
US Agrees to Help Enhance Ukrainian Forces, Dispatches Adviser
The United States and Ukraine agreed Thursday to cooperate on defense technology and improve Ukraine’s forces in a move aimed at boosting Ukrainian defense and enhancing U.S. assistance, the Pentagon said. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter also named a senior U.S. adviser to oversee the effort. Carter and Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan...
Putin’s Popularity: The Envy of Other Politicians
Donald Trump’s statement that Russian President Vladimir Putin enjoys an 82 percent approval rating among his people wasn’t hyperbole. Russia’s two main polling agencies consistently give the man in the Kremlin ratings that would be the envy of Trump or his rival in the U.S. presidential election, Hillary Clinton. The comments...
Isolated Russian Outpost Withers Under Confrontation With West
The Baltic Sea outpost of Kaliningrad was once touted as Russia’s future Hong Kong: separated from the mainland, with a special status that would allow it to thrive through trade. But for Igor Pleshkov, who employs 300 workers in a cement factory in this region of 1 million people wedged between EU members Lithuania and Poland, the future...
Russian Pollster: Authorities Want to Destroy NGOs
Russian officials are using harsh new legal interpretations to silence nonprofit organizations whose work challenges government positions or authority, the director of the country’s only independent polling agency contends. “The authorities have wanted to destroy the Levada Center as a large independent research organization for a...
US Accuses Russia of Unsafe Aerial Intercept Over Black Sea
The United States accused Russia of sending one of its fighter jets dangerously close to an American spy plane over the Black Sea on Wednesday, an intercept American military officials said was “unsafe and unprofessional,” even as Moscow said it acted in accordance with international flight rules. The U.S. said its Navy P-8A Poseidon...
Russia Frees Crimean Dissident Umerov From Psychiatric Clinic
Russian authorities freed a prominent Crimean dissident from a psychiatric clinic on Wednesday after he was held there for almost a month and subjected to enforced examinations, his lawyer and a colleague said; but he still faces a possible jail sentence. Ilmi Umerov, deputy head of the Crimean Tatars’ semi-official Mejlis legislature,...
Ukraine President: NATO Membership Remains Strategic Goal
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said NATO membership remains a “strategic goal” and “an unwavering course” for his country. Speaking to lawmakers at the opening of Ukraine’s new parliament session Tuesday, Poroshenko said Kyiv had reached an unprecedented and very close level of cooperation with alliance members. The cooperation with...
