Since April 2018, the value-added tax refund system (Tax Free System) has been launched in the Russian Federation. To be eligible for a VAT refund, you must be a citizen of a foreign country...

We are outraged by the pressure that the American authorities are exerting on Russian citizen Maria Butina, who was arrested in the US last summer on trumped-up charges. Once more, her detention terms have been toughened. She is in solitary confinement for 22 hours per day. Ms Butina is not receiving proper medical care. We consider this an attempt to intimidate and break her down ahead of the court hearing - I should note once again on a fabricated case - scheduled for December 19.

Сitizens of the Republic of Zimbabwe may begin the process of online registration on http://russia.study as candidates for a State Scholarship to undertake bachelor’s, specialist’s and master’s degree courses in the Russian institutions of higher education in 2019/2020 academic year. The duration of a bachelor’s degree course is 4 years, specialist’s – 1 year, master’s – 2 years. An academic year in Russia starts on September 1. Upon arrival in Russia all students will undergo a one year Russian language course.

The Kiev leadership continues “playing with fire.” The other day, the Verkhovna Rada approved the imposition of martial law in 10 provinces of Ukraine. This event is part of a carefully planned scheme and its first stage was the Ukrainian Navy staging a provocation off the Russian coast in the vicinity of the Kerch Strait. The Russian leadership has provided all the necessary assessments of this provocation. The plot devised by the Kiev regime, its representatives and, of course, President Petr Poroshenko, is quite clear and aimed primarily at using martial law for improving their plummeting electoral ratings in a bid to score points riding the crest of yet another anti-Russia wave. Under the pretext of standing up to a phony “Russian aggression,” they have imposed severe restrictions on the main constitutional freedoms of Ukrainian citizens, including a ban on the freedom of speech, the freedom of assembly, and the freedom of movement. Now the Kiev authorities, if they so wish, can make the population surrender just about anything, from personal property to documents. The Ukrainian military and law-enforcers are granted exceptional powers, up to using force without trial or investigation, which in itself is a serious threat fraught with the civil conflict spreading to the rest of the country’s territory.

We are especially concerned about the attempts to discriminate against some media outlets and the use of government agencies and means to regulate public access to information, such as legislative initiatives advanced at the national level and internationally outside the framework of universal bodies such as the UN, the OSCE and the Council of Europe. I strongly hope that these efforts, which definitely cannot promote the freedom of speech, will not result in any kind of political censorship. I hope that no obstacles will hinder our civil societies’ access to information.