Evidence that Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine killed soldiers in their captivity execution-style has been forwarded to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
In the runup to December 9 peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, Russian state media is disseminating a fake-news report that alleges that Kyiv plans to force residents from areas of the Donbas region controlled by pro-Russian separatists to migrate and undergo “re-education.”
Current Time’s investigation of European Union companies’ links with Crimea has found that a Cyprus-based company, AnRussTrans, played a role in transporting the “little green men” and military equipment that enabled Russia to take control of the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014. To date, none of the companies that make up the AnRussTrans group appear to be included in EU, U.S., or Ukrainian sanctions lists.
Even after the EU and the United States adopted sanctions barring investment in Crimea, scores of EU companies have continued to do business on the peninsula, often through murky ownership structures, a new investigation by Current Time has found.
If fully developed, China’s Belt and Road Initiative has been projected to cost more than $1 trillion. But in neighboring Kazakhstan, Chinese investment doesn’t impress everyone. This autumn has been marked by protests across the country against Chinese loans and investment, including 55 planned Chinese enterprises. With trade and financial ties growing yearly between the economic superpower and the resource-rich Central Asian nation, these demonstrations could well continue.
Russia’s parliament on November 21 passed a bill that allows the government to identify individuals as “foreign agents.” The nomenclature could apply, in particular, to journalists who work with or for media outlets already deemed “foreign agents” or who distribute these outlets’ content online. Andrei Palkin, a regional parliamentarian from the ruling United Russia Party, told Current Time that the move was needed to restrict the activities of an alleged “fifth column.”
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told Current Time TV that Russia was the biggest obstacle to the latest efforts aimed at defusing the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Linkevicius noted violations of the cease-fire linked to troop withdrawals agreed by Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists, and said Russia was an "active participant" in the conflict.
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