Russia has written down $32 billion of Cuba’s Soviet era debt. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the law ahead of his official visit to Latin America, with Havana as his first stop. The agreement was first signed in October 2013 and draws a line under a twenty-year dispute. Cuba is now required to pay back $3.2 billion over the next 10 years. The first payment from Cuba is expected in October,... 

At least nine people, including four Ukrainian soldiers, have been reported killed in the east of the country, where government forces are fighting pro-Russian separatists. Two soldiers and at least one border guard were killed after their armoured vehicle drove over a mine on Friday near Dovzhansky, on Ukraine’s border with Russia. Vladyslav Seleznyov, a military spokesman, said a soldier was also... 

Iran and Russia have agreed to jointly help Iraq combat terrorism, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says. “Tehran and Moscow firmly support Iraq in its fight against terrorism and will strongly stand by the Iraqi nation and government to protect Iraq’s unity, independence and territorial integrity,” Amir-Abdollahian said in an interview with... 

A well-preserved carcass of a dinosaur, whose age is estimated at more than 120 million years, was found during excavations at the paleontological complex Shestakovsky in the Kemerovo region of Russia, Siberia. Researchers uncovered the carcass of, supposedly, Psittacosaurus Sibiricus, the Director of the Kemerovo Regional Museum, Olga Feofanova told Interfax. The scientists use the “monolith”... 

Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom has warned European countries that it will limit natural gas supplies if they resell the natural gas to Ukraine. The company’s CEO Alexey Miller announced after Gazprom’s annual shareholders’ meeting on Friday that it is closely monitoring the situation and may curb supplies to nations that pump the Russian gas to Ukraine through reverse flow. “Our... 

The NATO administration warned Russia of new sanctions, should the Russian administration does not contribute to the cessation of the conflict in Ukraine. Foreign ministers of NATO countries gathered in Brussels to elaborate a joint approach to Russia. US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf stated that the USA had prepared additional sanctions against Russia. The sanctions can be introduced very... 

Thousands of people in the conflict-torn regions of Ukraine have fled the ongoing violence to neighboring Russia. Several towns in eastern Ukraine have suffered daily shelling and violent clashes between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian forces in recent weeks. Media reports say at least 5,000 people had fled the conflict zone by Thursday evening. Footage from one border crossing in the eastern Lugansk... 

The Russian Defense Ministry has decided not to pull back troops from the border with Ukraine. The army group in Rostov and Belgorod regions has been strengthened again. At the same time, despite the unilateral cessation of hostilities in the east of the country, announced by President Peter Poroshenko, the quantity of Ukrainian military equipment in the areas of clashes with militias will be increased. “The... 

Royal Air Force Typhoons Typhoon fighter jets from the UK’s Royal Air Force (RAF) were launched to intercept a number of Russian aircraft which were carrying out a routine training mission, as part of NATO’s ongoing mission to police Baltic airspace. On Tuesday the British jets identified a number of Russian aircraft, including four Sukhoi Su27 fighters, a Tupolev 22 bomber, a Beriev A50 early... 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned of the potential consequences of Russia’s gas dispute with Ukraine for Europe’s energy security. Putin highlighted the issue during a phone conversation with French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday. “They… discussed the potential consequences for Europe’s energy security and economy of... 

President Putin ordered increased security on the Russian-Ukrainian border a few weeks ago, and so Moscow is surprised by allegations about the concentration of Russian troops on its frontiers, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said. “We are surprised by such claims about the concentration of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border. In this case, it’s not about any concentration of military... 

European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger The European Union (EU) has warned of winter gas shortages after Russia and Ukraine failed to reach an agreement over their price dispute. European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger warned on Monday that the 28-nation bloc could face gas shortages during the coming winter after Russia cut off gas supplies to Ukraine earlier in the day... 

A truly apocalyptic report issued hours ago by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) today says that President Putin has ordered over 80,000 troops to “deploy immediately” to their forward operating “stations” on the Ukrainian border and the “immediate” cut-off of all natural gas supplies to Ukraine after he received confirmation that President Obama has placed US atomic weapons and their “delivery... 

Ukrainian troops outside the town of Andreyevskoye near Slavyansk, Donetsk Region. NATO is preparing a package deal to ramp up the Ukrainian military because it ‘must adapt’ to Russia viewing it as an enemy, the outgoing chief of the military bloc said. The deal would be submitted to foreign ministers of members states later this month, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told El Pais... 

Russia has deployed 24 Baltic Fleet warships and vessels, along with heavy fighter jets and bombers, as reinforcement for military drills in the westernmost Kaliningrad region while NATO stages its own war games across the border. On Wednesday, Moscow deployed a grouping of 24 Baltic Fleet warships and vessels for military drills in its exclave on the Baltic Sea coast. The drills were launched on...