Media outlets have been banned from broadcasting in Russian in Latvia

The Latvian Saeima (Parliament) has passed a law in its final reading prohibiting the national public broadcaster, LSM, from producing regular content in Russian. 

Mark Rutte "warned" EU countries of the need to increase military spending above the current 2% of GDP

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned EU countries of the need to increase military spending above the current 2% of GDP.

Venezuela pulls plug on CNN in Spanish

CNN's Spanish-language TV network was forced off the air Wednesday by the government of Venezuela after being accused of waging a negative "media campaign" against the country.

Deputy FM Gerontopoulos meets with the Republic of Cyprus’s Presidential Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs and Affairs of Overseas Cypriots, Fotis Fotiou

Hellenic MFA, Wednesday, 10 December 2014:
"Deputy Foreign Minister Kyriakos Gerontopoulos met at the Foreign Ministry today, Wednesday, 10 December, with the Republic of Cyprus’s Presidential Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs and Affairs of Overseas Cypriots, Fotis Fotiou, and the Representative of the Greek Cypriot community to the Committee on Missing Persons, Nestoras Nestoros.

OSCE official admits high risks of Ukrainian society’s polarization. Ukraine's president wants English taught at schools instead of Russian

There is a very high risk of a further polarization of Ukrainian society, Astrid Tors, a spokeswoman for the problems of ethnic minorities at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Friday at a session of the organization’s parliamentary assembly.
The problem of the Russian language and the attempts to change it created one of the causes of the current crisis, she said.
Latest developments in Ukraine show that the risks of further polarized changes in Ukrainian society are high and much remains unclear about the status of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.

Ukraine’s criminal case against Russian investigators condemned as inadequate

Committee on Tuesday condemned the criminal investigation that Kiev launched against members of the commitee into alleged interference in the work of Ukraine's law enforcement bodies.
The Ukrainian investigation was opened on Monday shortly after the Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case into genocide of the Russian-speaking population in eastern Ukraine.
“The inadequate defensive reaction of a group of individuals hidden behind the sign of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office forces us to study the issue of their role in covering up the facts of the genocide of the Russian-speaking population,” the committee’s spokesman Vladimir Markin said.

Bulgarian village residents protest against accepting refugee children in school

Residents of the village of Kalishte in Bulgaria’s Kovatchevitsa area protested on September 15, the first day of school, against accepting 12 refugee children at the school.

The parents of the 18 pupils at the school threatened to move their children if the refugee children arrived at the school, local media said.

Of the 12 foreign children, seven are first-graders and the rest in other grades.

Moldova banned Russian TV channel to please US, EU (Moldovan lawmaker)

Moldova has banned rebroadcasting of Russia’s Russia 24 television channel being driven by the desire to please the United States and the European Union, Konstantin Starysh, a lawmaker with the Party of Communists and former chief of the Moldovan office of the MIR television company, told Itar-Tass on Friday.

“Nearly half of lawmakers were against the ratification of Moldova’s association agreement with the European Union out of fears that it might complicate relations with Russia,” he said. “The authorities tried to persuade us that they would do their best to remain in good relations with the strategic partner. And here is their first step - to ban Russian television channels in the territory of the republic.”

Moldova bans Russia 24 TV news channel from broadcasting in its territory

-
The Moldovan authorities have banned the broadcasts of the Russia 24 TV news channel in the Moldovan territory as of January 1, 2015 without stating the reason for their decision, the channel reported in its roller titles on Friday.
http://en.itar-tass.com/world/739033
4/7/14
--
-
Related:

Moscow Calls for International Assessment of Rights Violations in Ukraine

Russia expects international watchdogs to assess human rights violations against ethnic minorities committed by the "new Ukrainian authorities," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
"There has been a large increase lately in the number of individuals who want to return to their historic homeland temporarily or permanently," the ministry said. "More and more Ukrainian residents are looking for refuge in Russia."
"We believe the fate of these people should not go unnoticed by influential international organizations, including the UN, OSCE, and the Council of Europe, which should clearly demonstrate their readiness to protect their rights."

Russia agrees to turn over some weapons to Ukraine. - No specifics were given on quantities, types of hardware or timing.

MOSCOW: Russia's foreign ministry on Friday alleged that ethnic minorities in Ukraine are living in fear after the ouster of the country's president and the coming to power of interim authorities that include right-wing nationalists.

The statement by the ministry was in line with Russia's frequent contention that Ukraine's large ethnic Russian community faces repression under the new government that Moscow characterizes as fascist.

The ministry statement raises the stakes on the issue, saying that ethnic Germans, Hungarians and Czechs in Ukraine also feel themselves in peril.

Crimea obtains state status with declaration of independence adoption. - Crimean MP

The declaration of independence adopted by the deputies of the Supreme Council of Crimea gave the peninsula state status. "By adopting this declaration we have declared ourselves a republic, and we will become a republic of Russia," the chairman of the Supreme Council of Crimea, has said.


Vladimir Konstatynov also said the name of the republic will also be changed.

"The word 'autonomous' is omitted, the Republic of Crimea is left," he said.

Crimea budget sufficient to finance referendum. - speaker/Ukraine 'blocks accounts of Crimea state treasury'

Speaker of the Crimean legislature Vladimir Konstantinov said the Crimean budget has sufficient resources to finance the referendum on Crimea's status set for March 16.
"The estimate has been detailed and the funding will be provided," he told the press on Sunday. Exactly how much will be spent on the referendum will be determined on Monday, he said. A referendum will be held in Crimea and in Sevastopol on March 16.

Duma vice-speaker: Crimea’s parliament makes “historical” decision

The Crimean legislature’s approval of the idea the peninsula may join Russia is a historical decision, the State Duma’s Deputy Speaker Sergei Neverov said in an interview to Itar-Tass on Thursday.

“We are one nation split because of [Communist] party functionaries’ irresponsibility,” said Neverov, secretary of the General Council of the ruling party, United Russia.

Gunmen from Kiev attempted to seize Crimea's Interior Ministry overnight - Russia

Photo: Reuters

Unknown armed men from Kiev have tried to seize the Crimean Interior Ministry overnight, and there were several injuries in that attack, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“Thanks to the decisive action of self-defense squads, the attempt to seize the building of the Interior Ministry was derailed. This attempt confirms the intention of prominent political circles in Kiev to destabilize the situation on the peninsula,” the statement added. 

Russia regrets Europarliament’s resolution on Transdniestria. -European deputies as experts on such a complicated and delicate issue is deplorable

The Russian Foreign Ministry has expressed regret over the European Parliament’s resolution on Transdniestria.

"The resolution passed by the European Parliament at its plenary session on February 6, the resolution on the right to education in Trans-Dniestria, has not escaped Moscow’s attention," the ministry said on its website on Wednesday.

"We are surprised that the above resolution drafted by European MPs from Romania was literally "rubber-stamped" in the presence of less than 10 percent of the European lawmakers," the statement says.

"The self-opinionated desire of the European deputies who voted for it to position themselves as experts on such a complicated and delicate issue is deplorable," the ministry said.

Lettonie: Moscou dénonce l'assimilation forcée des minorités

La décision de Riga de supprimer la langue russe des écoles secondaires lettones à partir de septembre 2018 s'inscrit dans la politique nationale d'assimilation forcée des minorités ethniques, a déclaré jeudi à Moscou le porte-parole du ministère russe des Affaires étrangères Alexandre Loukachevitch.

"Les autorités lettones mènent toujours leurs politique visant à supprimer l'enseignement en russe. Or c'est la langue maternelle et de communication d'un tiers de la population lettone. Qui plus est, la Lettonie fait fi des recommandations formulées à maintes reprises par des organisations internationales", a indiqué M.Loukachevitch.

Štefan Füle (European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy): Right to Education in Transnistria....

European Commission, 6/2/14
Mr. President, Honourable Members of the European Parliament,
The Republic of Moldova is facing a very difficult political situation this year, where deep-rooted domestic factors of instability are compounded by systematic undermining of the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity from outside. Attempts to escalate tensions in Transnistria belong to the latter category. We deeply deplore them and will continue to help Moldova withstand pressures.

Greek Foreign Minister says that Athens takes the same position as Albanians in FYROM on the name dispute. -FYROM news

A document released by the French Senate offers details on the positioning of Athens as far as issues of the region are concerned and in particular about the name dispute issue with Skopje.

Media in Skopje have published today a document where the head of the Greek diplomacy, Evangelos Venizelos has stressed that Skopje’s problem with Bulgaria is bigger than the name dispute with Greece.

Venizelos has explained that there’s harmony between the Greek positioning and that of the Albanian ethnic community in FYROM.

Bulgaria Says Willing to Ink Friendship Treaty with F.Y.R.O.M. ... Bulgaria and FYROM share a common past and a similar language.

Bulgaria is strongly committed to signing a good-neighbor agreement with FYROM and is negotiating to settle the matters that still exist in the bilateral relations, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Kristian Vigenin has said.

“The differences of principle between the two countries are related mainly to three key issues” Vigenin told the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) on Monday.

He assured that Bulgarian government continues conducting talks with Skopje regarding the key differences that still need to be settled.

The Bulgarian Foreign Minister explained that one of the issues is due to the common history that the two countries share and it concerns the arrangement of celebrating important historic dates.