Page 15 - Current Time News Today

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) and the Defense Ministry said on December 22 they had uncovered a scheme that involved the embezzlement of the equivalent of nearly $40 million and arrested the head of one of the main departments of the Defense Ministry under suspicion of involvement in the scheme.

Tajik opposition activist Bilol Qurbonaliev, who was deported from Germany for allegedly violating immigration rules, has been arrested in Dushanbe, his family said on December 22.

Seventy-five clashes took place between Ukrainian forces and the invading Russian Army over the past 24 hours, Kyiv said on December 23, adding that its troops repelled Russian attacks on six front lines in the country’s east and northeast.

Russia’s Communist Party on December 23 nominated Nikolai Kharitonov, 75, to run against President Vladimir Putin in next March’s presidential election.

The Polish government said farmers will on December 24 suspend their protest at the Medyka border crossing with Ukraine, helping to ease tensions between the two normally friendly nations.

Russia’s Central Election Commission has barred journalist Yekatarina Duntsova, who has called for peace in Ukraine, from running for president in the next election, citing alleged mistakes in her application to register as a candidate.

The Serbian Prosecutor's Office on December 23 said it has launched an investigation into allegations of fraud during recent elections after it said it received reports of possible irregularities, including vote buying and the falsifying of ballots and signatures.

A court in Russia's Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk said on December 21 that two individuals have been sentenced to prison terms of eight and seven years on charges of financing Ukraine's armed forces.

The Uzbek Foreign Ministry summoned Russian Ambassador Oleg Malginov on December 22 and told him that statements by ultranationalist pro-Kremlin writer Zakhar Prilepin a day earlier are "provocative and may have a negative impact" on Uzbek-Russian relations.

The Chui regional court in Kyrgyzstan's north has upheld a lower court decision to change the parole-like sentence of activist and blogger Adilet Ali Myktybek, known on social media as Adilet Baltabai, to actual imprisonment.