June 26:
Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinski plans to impose a value-added tax (VAT) on foreign films in Russia, reports news website Meduza. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev apparently supports the measure, and has ordered the Russian government to formally study its implementation. Officials believe that the tax could help to subsidize Russian-origin films and the theaters that show them. Critics, however, claim that the tax will only inflate movie ticket costs, cause theater attendance to drop, and reduce the interest of Western companies in the Russian market.
June 27:
Russia's government is solidifying its hold on Crimea - by repudiating the Peninsula's 1954 transfer to Ukraine.NEWSRU.com reports that Russia's prosecutor general has found that the Soviet Union's transfer of Crimea to the Republic of Ukraine under then-Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was unlawful under the prevailing constitution at the time. The formal report, issued in response to Russian parliamentary inquiry, retroactively justifies Russia's reabsorption of the Peninsula last year - by casting doubt on the legality of Ukraine's sovereignty of the territory between 1954 and 2014 in the first place.
June 29:
Recent rumors of flagging Russian support for Syria appear to be exaggerated. The Associated Press reportsthat, in a surprise meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin has recommitted to supporting the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Russia's support for "Syria, the Syrian leadership and the Syrian people remains unchanged," Putin has assured the Syrian government.
June 30:
Negotiations to build a Russian pipeline to Turkey have stalled over pricing issues, reports Bloomberg. Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom and its Turkish counterpart, Botas, failed to reach an agreement on pricing of gas supplies passing through the $15 billion pipeline. A deal is now unlikely to happen in the immediate future, and negotiations will probably resume only in October. The delay marks yet another wrench in Russia's plan to build pipelines to Europe that bypass Ukraine. The proposed "Turkish Stream" route was meant to replace the failed South Stream project through Bulgaria, which was cancelled as a result of EU objections late last year.
On the heels of its ruling that the Soviet Union's 1954 transfer of Crimea to the republic of Ukraine was illegal, Russian authorities have set their sights on another Soviet-era holding: the Baltics. Russia's prosecutor general has announced that his office is also reviewing the legality of the Baltic States' independence from the Soviet Union, the Agence France Presse reports. The request for review comes from two deputies of Vladimir Putin's ruling "United Russia" party, who believe that the 1990 declarations of independence by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania qualify as "state treason."
Aerial drone footage over eastern Ukraine has delivered the clearest proof yet of Russian involvement in Ukraine, according to The Daily Beast. Two separate flyovers in a two-week period have documented how a base - located just 12 kilometers from the Ukrainian frontline settlements of Granitnoye and Novolaspa - morphed from a small collection of tents into a complete forward operating position, outfitted with around 70 troops as well as nine T-72 tanks, trenches, communications vehicles, parade grounds, and even new roads. The location of the base suggests that Russia and its separatist proxies are planning a major new offensive, perhaps the largest since the signing of the Minsk-II ceasefire agreement in February.
Want these sent to your inbox?
Subscribe