RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – June 19, 2014
TODAY: Moscow wants international investigation into journalists’ deaths; Cuba agrees to host Glonass; political prisoners list doubles in six months; LGBT documentary directors summonsed; Bershidsky emigrates; Russia attempts to win back Visa and MasterCard.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is ordering a unilateral ceasefire by government forces, but pro-Russian separatists are apparently not interested. International organisations are calling on Ukraine to maintain the safety of journalists in regions of unrest, after two Russian journalists were murdered near Luhansk; Moscow is seeking an international investigation into the deaths of Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin. Russian investigators have launched a criminal case against the Interior Minister of Ukraine on suspicion of ‘organised murder’ of civilians. Moscow says that gas talks with Ukraine and Europe will not be resumed until Ukraine pays its gas debts. Nadya Tolokonnikova writes in the Guardian about the upcoming regional elections: Vladimir Putin’s persecution of his potential opponents is proof that he is scared, she says. Cuba has agreed to host Russia’s Glonass infrastructure as part of a space cooperation agreement – baffling given that Cuba has no space presence.