Three Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in battle today. Heavy snowstorms have closed roads in Odessa and other provinces and power is out in some areas. But water was restored to some areas of Lugansk Region after the Russia-backed separatist authorities paid part of their bills.
The lengthy closure of the Kaliningrad airport as a result of a plan accident highlights the complete lack in Moscow of a plan to ensure the energy, transportation, and information security of that Russian exclave.
Russia claims a NATO jet flew ‘dangerously close’ to a Russian passenger plane, but both NATO and the Russian airline deny the claim.
Vladimir Putin has no interest in the deal Thomas Graham suggests he now wants, Vitaly Portnikov says; and consequently, if Washington pursues the course the former US diplomat and current Kissinger Associate advisor proposes, it will only embarrass itself.
Russian war bloggers at the Conflict Intelligence Team (@citeam.org) have discovered a social media report describing the deaths in combat of three Russian paratroopers in Syria.
US intelligence officials are to testify on claims of Russian hacking amid skepticism. Moldovan and Transnistria leaders meet for the first time in 8 years.
Four activists were detained for picketing in support of missing political prisoner Ildar
Marine Le Pen, head of the French far-right National Front, has appealed to Russian banks to fund her election camp as she is sued over a previous loan from the now-bankrupt Czech-Russian Bank.
In year-end clashes between police and militants in the North Caucasus, 6 people killed and 4 wounded. A man with an explosive was stopped at Sheremeytovo Airport.
Pavel Pryanikov says that the three most important trends of the past year likely to cast a shadow on Russian domestic politics in the year ahead are the return to high office of the methodologists, the end of Russian nationalism, and the revolt of the regions.
