Page 77 - Cisc News Today

The United States gave JPMorgan permission to process payments for agricultural exports via the Russian Agricultural Bank, but the arrangement was no substitute for reconnecting the bank to the SWIFT system, two Russian sources told Reuters.

Armenia has appealed to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over Azerbaijan's installation of a checkpoint on the only road linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, Russian media reported on Wednesday.

Italy on Wednesday said it aimed to play a major role in the reconstruction of Ukraine and urged European Union bodies to back the rebuilding of a country battered by over a year of war with Russia.

Risks of a direct military confrontation between the two nuclear powers, Russia and the United States, are steadily growing, the TASS news agency quoted a senior Russian diplomat as saying on Tuesday.

Lithuania's parliament passed legislation on Tuesday allowing border guards to turn back migrants who cross its frontier illegally, brushing away concerns from human rights organizations.

Russia's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said it was expelling a Moldovan diplomat in what it cast as retaliation for the expulsion last week of a Russian diplomat in Moldova.

A group of pro-Ukrainian scholars has called for much tougher Western sanctions on Russia, including halving an oil price cap to $30 a barrel, imposing a full embargo on Russian steel, iron and diamonds and making it easier to confiscate Russian assets.

A new round of European Union sanctions against Russia for waging war against Ukraine is under discussion but adoption of the package is unlikely earlier than "deep into May", Poland's Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said late on Monday.

Pope Francis leaves on Friday on a three-day trip to Hungary, where the war in Ukraine, migration and Europe's Christian roots are expected to top the agenda in his public addresses and private talks with nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

A proposal by U.N. chief Antonio Guterres on improving and extending a deal on the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain can succeed only if the international community collectively pressures Russia, a senior Ukrainian official said on Tuesday.