KGB

Ljubljana – Prime Minister Janez Janša has labelled the atrocities Russia is believed to have committed in Bucha, a city close to Kyiv, crimes against humanity, likening them to the execution of Poles in Katyn in 1940 by the Soviet Union.

I don't know whether that stands true for all the history of the world, but I know that 20th-century Europe's often painful history can be observed through the lens of borders.

The US State Department issued a warning on Monday evening for US citizens to leave or not to travel to the Moldovan breakaway region of Transnistria.

The State Department cited "unusual Russian troop movements around [neighbouring] Ukraine and the unresolved conflict between this breakaway region and the central government".

"But the circle was closing in on me and my friends," Belkevich tells BIRN. "The KGB started coming to our houses to checkup on us. Then one day, I got a notification from the police telling me to show up at the station for interrogation that Friday. That's the moment I realised it was time to go."

Photographs of a crushed Putin over his associate's deathbed have traveled the world.

EPA-EFE/ALEXEI NIKOLSKY/SPUTNIK /KREMLIN / POOL MANDATORY CREDIT

For Putin, Zinichev was more than an associate, although he was officially the Minister of Emergency Situations.
He was also Putin's personal bodyguard for a while.

As confirmed by that ministry, he died during the exercise, when he was saving the life of one person.
Zinichev, who is considered Putin's man, was born in 1966, in St. Petersburg.
He was a member of the army for many years, and he served in the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy.

Angela Merkel on Her Last Official Visit to Moscow in Her Capacity as German Chancellor

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is heading to Moscow on Friday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Miroslav Lazanski, the Serbian ambassador to Russia, has suddenly died, Serbia's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

Lazanski was appointed ambassador to Moscow in June 2019. He had been an MP in parliament since June 2016, elected on the ruling Serbian Progressive Party's list as a non-party person.

A meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden in Geneva on Wednesday is unlikely to yield concrete deals but the talks will still be useful, a Kremlin aide said.

The leaders will meet for the first time since Biden became president as the bilateral relationship stands at the lowest point in years.

EU leaders completely rewrote the agenda of their summit discussions on Monday after learning with dismay that Belarus had forced a passenger plane carrying a wanted journalist to divert and land in its capital.