The Moscow City Court has sentenced former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan to 16 years in prison after convicting him on espionage charges in a trial held behind closed doors. Whelan, who also holds British, Canadian, and Irish citizenship, has denied all the charges. Addressing reporters outside the courthouse on June 15, the U.S. Ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, called the trial "a mockery of justice."
When Kyrgyz citizen Beknazar Ibraimov won a U.S. Green Card this year, he sold his family's apartment and started making plans. But the White House's January 31 decision to ban Kyrgyz citizens from entering the U.S. caught him and hundreds of other Kyrgyz Green Card winners up short. Bishkek has pledged to meet U.S. demands for a biometric passport, but, as yet, little suggests that Ibraimov and his compatriots will see their Green Card dreams come true this year.
The territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh has lasted since the end of the 1980s. As a result, more than a million people from both countries are estimated to have become refugees and forced migrants, losing their homes and their ways of life.
With coronavirus cases and deaths steadily rising, Russia's pro-government TV channels appear to have sensed a prime opportunity for some conspiracy theories: The epidemic could be all the work of U.S. President Donald Trump, the Central Intelligence Agency, and U.S. philanthropist George Soros, their news reports suggest. As yet, proof is not a priority.
It's a kind of no-man's-land: three Ukrainian villages lie beyond their country's last border post on the road to Belarus, complicating life for the inhabitants who must pass through border checks to enter their own country.
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka says Russia is blocking deliveries of Kazakh oil amid a tariff dispute with Moscow, Minsk's regular supplier.
On January 15, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his annual address to Russia's Federal Assembly about the state of the country and changes for the future. Ahead of the speech, Current Time spoke with Russians in Moscow, Kaliningrad, Vladivostok, and Yekaterinburg about what they would tell parliament in Putin's place.
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