Here's an update from our news desk:
An aide to Vladimir Putin says the Russian president will hold telephone talks with the leaders of Ukraine, Germany, and France later today to discuss efforts to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov said the conversation would "focus on the current crisis situation and prospects for the next meeting of the contact group," a reference to talks between representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and pro-Russian separatists who hold territory in east Ukraine.
Those talks produced a September 5 agreement on a cease-fire between the separatists and Ukrainian government forces and other steps to end the conflict, which has killed more than 4,700 people in eastern Ukraine since April.
More than 1,000 people have been killed despite the truce deal, but fighting has abated this month and efforts have been made to convene new talks.
A spokesperson for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the telephone call was due to take place at 5 p.m. Prague time.
(Reuters, AP, Interfax, TASS)
From RFE/RL's News Desk:
The Moscow City Court has upheld a lower court decision to extend the pretrial detention of Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko until February 13, 2015.
The 33-year-old Savchenko was captured in June by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and transferred to Russian custody in July.
Russian authorities have charged her with complicity in the killing of two Russian journalists who died while covering Ukraine’s conflict.
Savchenko denies the charges and says she was illegally transferred to Russian custody.
Placed in a notorious Moscow medical institute where she was forced to undergo a psychiatric examination, she has gone on a hunger strike to protest her treatment.
Her lawyer, Mark Feigin, says Savchenko’s health has declined considerably during her six months in detention.
Savchenko won a parliamentary seat in Ukraine’s October elections and has been named as a Ukrainian representative at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
From RFE/RL's News Desk:
The chairwoman of the Russian Federation Council says the upper house of the parliament is drafting legislation that would retroactively proclaim the Soviet Union's 1954 transfer of Crimea to Ukraine as “legally void and nonbinding” since the moment of its enactment.
Valentina Matviyenko made the announcement at a December 22 meeting of lawmakers from both chambers of parliament that also was attended by President Vladimir Putin.
Matviyenko said a legal analysis shows the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine under the Soviet leadership of Nikita Khrushchev was “unlawful” and violated the constitution and legal procedures of the time.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March after deploying Russian troops across the peninsula and carrying out an independence referendum that has been condemned around the world as a violation of Ukrainian and international law.
From RFE/RL's News Desk:
Russia’s former Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin has warned that the country’s current financial crisis is now deteriorating into a "full-fledged economic crisis" that will be sharply felt across Russia during 2015.
Kudrin, who now heads a Russian think tank called the Civic Initiatives Committee, told the Interfax news agency on December 22 that Russia’s most optimistic forecast is a 2 percent decline of Gross Domestic Product during 2015.
But he said that forecast is based on the global oil price rising to $80 per barrel.
Kudrin said if oil prices remain at the current $60 per barrel level, Russia’s GDP will decline 4 percent or more next year.
Kurdin told Interfax: “I can say today that we have entered or are entering a genuine, full-fledged economic crisis. We will feel it in full measure next year.”
More from RFE/RL's News Desk:
U.S. authorities have thwarted an attempt by Russia’s state-controlled oil giant Rosneft to boost its global reach by blocking its acquisition of a Morgan Stanley oil trading firm.
Rosneft – which is head by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s long-standing ally Igor Sechin – said on December 22 that the deal was terminated because U.S. regulators refused to grant clearance.
Morgan Stanley confirmed the deal was terminated and says it will now consider other options.
Valued at between $300 million and $400 million, the deal was agreed in December 2013 when Sechin said it would spearhead Rosneft’s growth in the international oil market.
But Western sanctions against Russia over its March 2014 annexation of Crimea, as well as plummeting oil prices, have hurt Rosneft’s ability to finance the operations.
Sanctions also have prompted Rosneft’s global partners, including ExxonMobil, to withdrawn from projects to develop Arctic offshore oil deposits.