Hollande Threatens: Ceasefire Should Be Reached In Ukraine For France to Deliver Mistral to Russia

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French President Francois Hollande set terms for Mistral delivery to Russia, saying that his conditions were a ceasefire and a political settlement in Ukraine, Reuters reported Thursday. «What are the conditions? A ceasefire and a political settlement… Today these conditions are not in place,” Hollande said as quoted by Reuters. On the sidelines of a NATO summit currently held in Wales, Hollande told reporters that the contract for two Mistral-class helicopters carriers was neither cancelled, nor suspended, but mentioned that the above conditions must be met in order for the ships to be delivered to Russia. 

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Aggravation of Sanctions Unwanted, but Russian Troops in Ukraine ‘Intolerable’ – Hollande

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Francois Hollande said he does not want economic sanctions against Moscow to intensify, but stressed that Russia’s possible military presence in Ukraine is unacceptable and could trigger new restrictions, the French president said at a meeting of French ambassadors in Paris on Thursday.

“Europe will continue [to introduce sanctions], or it could even intensify them in case of an escalation [of the situation in Ukraine]. I do not want this, as this is not in the interest of France, the European Union, or Russia,” Hollande said.

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International Inspections Found no Violations on Part of Russia at Border with Ukraine

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International inspections have not registered any violations on part of Russia, including undeclared military activity, at the border with Ukraine, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said on Sunday.

"According to the results of [international]inspections, no violations or undeclared military activity on the part of Russia have been registered at border areas with Ukraine," Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.

Some 18 international inspection teams have visited Russia’s border areas with Ukraine over the last four months in the framework of the Vienna Document 2011 and the Treaty on Open Skies.

US Senators Call for New Sanctions on Russia

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US senators called on their President Barack Obama to impose new sanctions against Russia, specifically the energy, finance and defense sectors of Russia’s economy, a letter from the senators addressed to the US president said.

“We urge you to implement your power in order to impose broader sanctions against Russia’s defense sector immediately, including state company Rosoboronexport. Russians must stop providing weapons, equipment and training to separatists in eastern Ukraine. We also urge you to consider further sanctions targeting energy, finance and other sectors of Russian economy,” the letter said.

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Built-In Safeguards to Prevent Financial Shocks From US Sanctions Against Russia - Psaki

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WASHINGTON, July 18 (RIA Novosti) - The extended sectoral sanctions imposed by the United States were specifically designed to minimize possible financial market shocks, US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said.

Russia & China see no sense in creating military alliance – Kremlin

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Russia and China see no sense in creating a military alliance; relations between Moscow and Beijing are not directed against anyone, head of the presidential administration of Russia Sergey Ivanov told journalists. He noted that cooperation between Russia and China was fruitful.

"But at the same time, I find no sense, and the Chinese side, I must admit, also finds no sense in creating a new military alliance or union, or something like that. Our relations, including in the sphere of defense, are not directed against anyone," said Ivanov.

CNN "moves" Ukraine's Slavyansk to Russia's Crimea

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The American CNN TV channel has revealed a shocking lack of geographical knowledge. A CNN report about self-defense fighters' pullout from the towns of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk in southeastern Ukraine carried a map locating Slavyansk in the western part of Crimea.

Covering Ukrainian troops' seizure of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, both situating in Ukraine's southeast Donetsk region, the CNN mislocated Slavyansk, "moving" it to Crimea which has recently become part of Russia.

Putin forecasts Russia's GDP to grow higher than expected early in 2014.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin expects that Russia’s GDP growth would be higher than it was expected in 2014. "Last year, Russia’s GDP grew by not very much - 1.3%. This is slightly less than the year before, but still there was some growth. I think this year we will reach more significant figures than we predicted in the beginning of this year," Putin said at a meeting with Russian and Austrian business leaders in Vienna on Tuesday, reports Interfax.

UN places blame on Ukraine's gov't for war crimes

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The United Nations Human Rights monitoring commission has published a report on the Ukrainian issue. The report might stir Kiev, the US and the EU up, if only the West still respects the UN. The report says that the Ukrainian government violates human rights and the international conventions in the Federal State of Novorossiya, which is southeastern Ukraine.

The violations include detentions, kidnapping, tortures and killing of people, including women and children.

Ukraine is to close frontier with Russia next week – Defense Minister of Ukraine

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Ukraine is going to close its border with Russia next week, said Ukraine’s acting Defense Minister Mikhail Koval on Sunday.

"The military forces jointly with the border guards have already closed 250 kilometers of the Ukrainian-Russian border. It will take several days more to close the entire border,” he said.
"Ukraine’s supreme commander-in-chief, its president has already set clear tasks regarding the closure of the eastern border. We are fulfilling these tasks. Next week we will be through with them. We have practically closed almost 250 kilometers of the state border. Our people are deployed near the state border along with border guards", added the Defense Minister, according to ITAR-TASS.

Russia holds massive military drills in Kalinigrad region

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Russia has airlifted 200 paratroopers and 30 military vehicles to its westernmost enclave of Kaliningrad amid the ongoing NATO war games in Europe, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday. "Il-76 planes have airlifted some 200 paratroopers and over 30 military vehicles to Kaliningrad, including air-droppable vehicles, such as infantry fighting vehicles BMD-2, armored personnel carriers BTR-2, Kamaz and Ural cars," the press service of the Russian Defense Ministry said.

On Wednesday, the Russian military announced the launch of a deployment operation that involved paratrooper units from the Pskov airborne division.

Russia's UN envoy sure US secret services wiretapping his phone, office

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Russian UN envoy Vitaly Churkin has no doubts that American secret services are wiretapping his phone and bug his office.

"I am sure they do", - he answered the corresponding question of the First Channel journalist of "Sunday time" program.

"However, I presume that I am always wiretapped and bugged as an official person. We got the "cold war", that is it does not influence me somehow," the Russian UN envoy said.

"I have no doubts that my cell phone is wiretapped - it is obvious and I always have to keep it in mind. Of course, we have secret offices, where I can discuss some issues with my colleagues in confidence. But even if these rooms are not eavesdropped, I always have to assume that I am."

Russia, China, non-aligned countries should call to abolish NATO - expert

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On 30 May 1982 Spain joined NATO and became its sixteenth member. Since NATO's formation in 1949 the organization accepted new members six times and as of 2014 NATO unifies 28 states in Europe and North America. Rick Rozoff, the owner and manager of the Stop NATO website and international mailing list, shared his views about the possibility of further NATO enlargement and on how should the international community and Russia react to it during his interview with VR.

What are your forecasts for the further NATO enlargement? Would the organization manage to move eastward in Europe?

Participants of the Maidan were on drugs - Head of Russia's drug control

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Head of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN), Viktor Ivanov, said Friday that many participants of the Maidan were "loaded".

"I have no information that the US brought drugs, but there is information that among the participants of the Maidan there was a huge number of drug addicts, that is, people who were in a completely abnormal, psychoactive condition," Ivanov said to journalists on Friday.

According to him, not only the Russian service, but also the Ukrainian colleagues possess this information.

Russia finds sanctions highly regrettable and unworthy of EU - Russia's deputy FM

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Russia finds the sanctions imposed on it by the European Union to be highly regrettable, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters here Monday. For instance, the EU has added Crimean Chief Prosecutor Natalya Poklonskaya to its sanctions' list of individuals.

"We regret to see the sanctions train rolling downhill as if it doesn’t have an engine driver," he said. "It's an absolutely thoughtless and irresponsible policy that doesn’t match reality in any way."

Centuries-old ties between Russia & Ukraine not to be broken - Russian official

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The centuries-old ties between Russia and Ukraine can’t be broken either by Western politicians or by "the anti-popular Kiev regime", Valentina Matviyenko, Chairperson of the Federation Council, upper house of Russian parliament, said on Thursday, May 1.

She believes that the crisis in Ukraine was initiated by the United States and Western countries which "once again decided to organise a ‘colour revolution’. But they miscalculated. The Libyan, Iraqi and Yugoslav scenarios failed in Ukraine".

However in the absence of "sources of information that would give an objective picture of the situation, many people in Ukraine are beginning to believe" Western politicians. "They [Western countries] have simply set the task of antagonising people against Russia", Matviyenko told the "Logic of Power" programme on Radio Russia.

Putin rules out "iron curtain" in Russia-West relations

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Russia is not going to pull down an iron curtain on the West, said Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

"The iron curtain was an invention of the Soviet times. This was an internal event. We are not going to close our country and our people, our public from anyone. No," Putin said during a hotline on Thursday.

Crimea, Sevastopol listed as constituent entities in Russia's Constitution

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The Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol, long-standing home base of Russia’s Black Sea naval fleet on the Crimean peninsula, have been included in the list of Russian constituent entities of the country’s Constitution.

A new variant of the Russian fundamental law has been made public at the official internet portal of legal information on Friday.

Two new federal constituent entities have been included in the list in Article 65 of Chapter 3 of the Russian Constitution stipulating federal system of government in the country.

US sanctions against Russia to blow up America's world domination

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Washington, angered by Russia, has decided to punish it and has made Brussels act likewise. Barack Obama has created a precedent by personally reading out the names of those on the anti-Russian sanctions list. Washington has been angered by Russia's reunification with Crimea. It is actually reunification, rather than annexation, as Washington and Brussels claim, for Russia can't annex what had been part of it for centuries.

#UkraineCrisis Live Update: Video leak - Ukraine's Tymoshenko threatens not to leave from Russia 'even scorched earth'

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Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said that Ukrainians must take up arms against Russians so that not even scorched earth will be left where Russia stands in phone call with with the former Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, the representative of the Party of Regions, Nestor Shufrych. The tape was leaked online. In her microblog on Twitter Tymoshenko acknowledged that the telephone conversation took place indeed.

Record of a two-minute conversation appeared on the video sharing site YouTube, which was as well posted on the website of the TV channel RT.