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Russia has banned fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, milk and dairy imports from the US, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Norway. Dmitry Medvedev said the ban was effective immediately and would last for one year. The agriculture minister, Nikolai Fyodorov, said on Thursday that greater quantities of Brazilian meat and New Zealand cheese would be imported to offset the newly prohibited items. He added Moscow was in talks with Belarus and Kazakhstan to prevent the banned western foodstuffs being exported to Russia from the two countries. The Kremlin's move comes in response to the grounding of the budget airline subsidiary...

Putin's Secret Message to ObamaI’m Andrew Klavan and this is the Revolting Truth. Ever since President Obama took office, he’s been making friendly overtures to the Russians, trying to “press the reset button” in relations between our two countries. In 2012, the president was even caught on an open mike promising he’d have more “flexibility” to cave in to Russian demands after he was re-elected. Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded warmly to Obama’s gestures by warmly cheating on our arms treaties, warmly supporting our enemies in Syria, warmly annexing Crimea, and warmly abetting the destruction of a Malaysian airliner...

As Ukrainian government forces close in on pro-Russia separatists' final strongholds, Western security strategists have sounded the alarm that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be preparing to invade eastern Ukraine to rescue the embattled insurgents. U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday added his voice to the chorus of warnings that a massive Russian troop buildup on the border with Ukraine may be more than Kremlin saber-rattling. “It’s a reality, of course it is,” Hagel said during a visit to the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany. “When you see the buildup of these troops, the sophistication and training of...

Canada has slapped fresh economic sanctions and travel bans on some Russian and Ukrainian groups and individuals. In addition to VTB Bank OAO , Russia’s second-largest bank by assets, Canada targeted Bank of Moscow and the Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank). The United States imposed sanctions on all three banks last Wednesday to punish Russia for its actions in Ukraine.

In eastern Ukraine, the battle lines have been shifting for months, after pro-Russian separatists asserted effective control over several key towns across the region. In a bid to assert its control, the Ukrainian forces have been fighting for months, to reinstate Kyiv’s authority over areas held by pro-Russian separatists. Law and order do not necessarily follow. In the broader context of a deteriorating security situation in the east, Amnesty International has recently raised its concerns with the Ukrainian authorities about one particularly errant MP who has been “detaining” – in effect abducting – and ill-treating individuals across the region. He’s...

International experts have suspended their search for body parts at the MH17 crash site on Wednesday because of deteriorating security in eastern Ukraine, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said. "It doesn't make sense to continue with the repatriation in this manner," the Dutch leader told a press conference in The Hague. Rutte said increasing tension between Kiev -- which is battling pro-Russian separatists in the area -- has made it too unsafe to continue with the search for victims' remains. "It goes without saying that Australia and Malaysia and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation are with us on this...

Today, "with the goal of protecting Russia's national interests," Vladimir Putin issued a decree "banning or limiting" the import of food stuffs from countries that imposed sanctions on Russia after pro-Russian separatists shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in Ukraine. That includes the United States, the European Union, Japan, Australia, and Canada. Russia, despite once being the bread basket of Europe, now imports 40 percent of its food. And even if local growers and producers step up to fill the gap left by the ban, it will still take a long time and the transition will be rough.

Ukrainian Journalist Says Servicemen In Gukovo Are On Hunger Strike 14:25 (GMT) Andriy Tsaplienko, a senior correspondent for Ukraine's Inter television channel, has written on his Facebook page that Ukrainian soldiers and border guards, who were forced to take refuge in Russian territory on August 4, are trapped in Russia and are on hunger strike. He writes (translated by The Interpreter): The soldiers from the 72nd brigade and border guards are stuck in the territory of the Russian Federation. According to one of their commanders, none of the lads asked for asylum in Russia or switched their allegiance. They summoned...

by pro-Russian rebels in eastern UkraineUkrainian media have published images they claim shows wreckage from the downed Malaysian aircraft is being used as part of a roadblock leading into the breakaway Donetsk region. The photographs, taken by Ukrainian journalists, purport to show part of the aircraft's fuselage being used to strengthen a roadblock near the village of Rassypnoye. Journalist Boris Mihalov, 32, said: 'We wanted to take more pictures and question those about how the wreckage was being used in this way but we were basically ambushed and carted away. 'They wanted to take the camera's memory card but we...

The Russian prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, has threatened to retaliate for the grounding of a subsidiary of Aeroflot, the national airline, because of EU sanctions, with one newspaper reporting that European flights to Asia over Siberia could be banned. Such a move would enforce costly detours on airlines, including Lufthansa and IAG, owner of British Airways, as more fuel would be needed for extended routes. Low-cost carrier Dobrolyot, operated by Aeroflot, suspended all flights last week after its airline leasing agreement was cancelled under European Union sanctions because it flies to Crimea, a region Russia annexed from Ukraine in March....

A special presidential flight landed in Kyiv late on July 29 carrying 17 exhausted people, who then met with President Petro Poroshenko. The group, which included 15 Ukrainian servicemen, one Swedish and one Georgian citizen, spent months as hostages in Horlivka, one of the last remaining strongholds of the Kremlin-backed separatists led by defiant rebel commander Igor Bezler who goes by the nickname of “Demon.” These people were set free in an exchange for Olga Kulygina, believed to be a Russian Security Service agent.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged his government to come up with countermeasures to Western sanctions imposed against Russia over the Ukrainian conflict. Putin stressed that Moscow’s response should be “cautious.” “Obviously we need to do it cautiously in order to support domestic manufacturers, but not hurt consumers,” he said on Tuesday. The president expects the government to present a response to the sanctions as soon as possible. Putin said that the political tools of pressure being used against the Russian economy are unacceptable, stressing that they go against international rules and norms. Putin’s comments come on the same day...

Russia has called for emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday over what it called an urgent humanitarian situation in Ukraine, according to a report from the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS. "We are convening an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine," Russian Ambassador to the U.N. Vitaly Churkin was quoted as saying. Earlier on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the U.N. and the International Committee of the Red Cross expressed "readiness" to discuss its plan to deploy a "humanitarian mission" to Ukraine, which some consider to be a...

Why Col. Strelkov May Have Trouble Recruiting Russians 06:13 (GMT) Andrei Morozov (nick-name "Murza"), is an ultranationalist activist from Moscow who heads a small Russian neo-Stalinist nationalist group called "Red Blitzkrieg," among the groups supporting the pro-Russian separatists in southeastern Ukraine as we reported. Morozov travelled to the region and tried to join the "Donetsk People's Republic," but was arrested and tortured by the "militia" for his trouble. Ultimately he was released, and wrote an account on 21 May of his ordeal. Snip On the night of 12th May, without any commentary, I was taken to the dead end of...

The European Union may acquire two Russian warships currently under construction in France, analysts say. The possibility comes as the United States and Western Europe tighten economic sanctions against Russia, and Monday's denial of a German defense contractor's delivery of military components to Russia by the German government. ... The German Navy proposed the EU purchase the ships,

Russia’s military has started a new round of war games near Ukraine, where pro-Moscow rebels are calling for urgent help from the Kremlin as Kiev’s forces bear down on their strongholds. The separatists reject Kiev’s new pro-western government and want eastern Ukraine to be ruled by Moscow, but they are increasingly isolated in the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk as they struggle to maintain supply lines to Russia. Moscow denies allowing fighters and heavy weapons to cross into Ukraine, and rejects claims that rebels used one of its Buk missiles to bring down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on July 17th,...

Military Says It Took Back a Town Even as Some Troops Crossed Border With Russia KIEV—Ukrainian forces were seeing mixed results in their battle against pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country on Monday, reporting they had moved closer to cutting off the separatist stronghold of Donetsk even as several hundred Ukrainian troops surrendered overnight across the Russian border. Military spokesman Col. Andriy Lysenko told reporters in Kiev that Ukrainian forces had retaken Yasinuvata, a small city on the northern outskirts of Donetsk, closing off what he said was an important supply route for the separatists. A Twitter feed...

Ukrainian says footage proves pro-Russian separatists commandeered his truck to transport weapon A key clue has linked pro-Moscow rebels to the truck seen carrying the BUK missile system towards Russia hours after MH17 was downed, it is claimed. The owner of what is said to be the only such white Volvo truck in the Donetsk region of Ukraine has identified his lorry and said it was commandeered by separatists who took over his premises nine days before the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was shot out of the sky .... Footage shot by a clandestine Ukrainian police team showed an image...

This story apparently took place last month, right after Malaysia flight 17 was shot down over the Russia – Ukraine border area, but we’re only hearing about it now. A United States aircraft – a Boeing RC-135 – was performing reconnaissance of Russian forces when the Russians noticed, began tracking the craft using ground radar and dispatched a fighter jet to intercept it. Complicating the issue is the fact that the US plane took evasive action which included flying into Swedish airspace without getting permission to do so. Once the crew on board the spy plane realized they were...

The chief-of-staff of Britain’s biggest trade union has launched a group supporting pro-Putin separatists in Ukraine. Andrew Murray, who is one of the most powerful figures in the Unite union, spoke at the inaugural meeting of campaign group Solidarity with the Anti-Fascist Resistance in Ukraine (SARU), in which he branded the Western-backed Kiev government as "fascist" and derided Prince Charles for comparing Putin to Hitler. The Mail on Sunday reports that Mr Murray, who was introduced as representing the Communist Party of Britain, rather than the Unite union, added: "We have to take a stand here in Britain, which is...