With a display of fireworks in Moscow and Crimea, President Vladimir Putin has signed a law formalizing Russia's takeover of Crimea from Ukraine, despite fresh sanctions from the EU and the US. The European Union's latest measures target twelve people involved in Russia's annexation of the peninsula.
According to Reuters, Crimea may nationalize oil and gas assets within its borders belonging to Ukraine, and sell them off to Russia. Crimea’s Deputy Prime Minister hinted at the possibility that it would take control of Chornomorneftegaz, a Ukrainian state-owned enterprise, and then “privatize” it by selling it to Gazprom.
On February 27, 1954 Pravda published a short announcement on its front page that the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR had decreed on February 19 the transfer of the Crimean oblast' from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Crimea means more to Russia than the Falklands mean to Britain, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday after holding last-ditch talks on the region with his U.S. counterpart John Kerry.
Russia is planning to expand its permanent military presence outside its borders by placing military bases or seeking permission for navy ships to use ports in a number of foreign countries, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday. The list includes Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, the Seychelles, Singapore and several other countries
Pravda, Russia’s political newspaper associated with the Communist Party, welcomed Gibraltar into UEFA’s family in an article publish online on Thursday.
Gazprom has started producing oil from the Prirazlomnoye field, which is the first Russian project for developing the Arctic shelf and the commencement of their large-scale activities aimed at creating a large hydrocarbon production center in the region, according to the company.
The United Nations maritime tribunal has ordered Russia to free a Greenpeace vessel and 30 people detained after an oil drilling protest in the Arctic. The court in the German city of Hamburg said a bond of 3.6 million Euros should be posted.
Russia, Ukraine and China are being blamed for a failure of plans to protect almost 3 million square kilometers of ocean in Antarctica. After two weeks of discussions behind closed doors, the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has failed to come to an agreement on new marine reserves.
President Barack Obama has been demoted to second place from Forbes' Most Powerful People list which has named Russia's President Vladimir Putin as the leader of the pack.