Perestroika

Kiev on Aug. 18 welcomed a US decision to let Denmark and the Netherlands hand F-16 fighter jets over to Ukraine once its pilots are trained to use them.

In Russia, the authorities shut down respected rights group the Sakharov Center and announced fresh international sanctions against its critics abroad.

Ljubljana – President Borut Pahor and the Foreign Ministry responded to the death of last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Wednesday. Slovenians will remember Gorbachev as a great historic figure who understood the call for ending the Cold War, for democratic revival and European integration and cooperation, Pahor tweeted.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his "deepest condolences" on the death of the former president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed that Mikhail Gorbachev had a "huge impact on the course of world history", in a condolence telegram sent on Wednesday.

Sad news was published by the Russian media.
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was born on March 2, 1931 and was the political leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

A Russian gallery has said one of its security guards was implicated in vandalizing a 20th century avant-garde artwork, after he drew eyes onto figures of an abstract painting with a pen.

In December, a painting by Anna Leporskaya, a student of legendary artist Kazimir Malevich, was found defaced while on display at the Yeltsin Centre in Yekaterinburg.

The US has told Russia it will not rejoin an arms control deal that permits unarmed aerial flights over dozens of participating countries.

The state department said the Open Skies Treaty "has been undermined by Russia's violations" and its failure to return to compliance.

Russia denies the allegations, and the country is also expected to withdraw from the treaty this year.

The first and last president of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev marks his 90th birthday on Tuesday.

Russia decided to do so due to the lack of any progress on the issue of removing the obstacles that have been created so far and that hinder its functionality.
As it is stated, as soon as all internal procedures are completed, the notification will be sent to all other participants in the Agreement.

"It was important for Yeltsin that Putin was of different generation because the country should not have been left to those who ruled it during the Soviet Union", former Kremlin Head of Administration Valentin Yumashev said during a public interview at the Yeltsin Presidential Center in Yekaterinburg.

Russia said on Tuesday that the U.S. test of a ground-launched cruise missile was regrettable and showed that Washington had long been preparing for the demise of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, TASS news agency reported.