ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Photo : Andrey Veselov The Russian state-run news agency Sputnik reports ( source ): In an exclusive, in-depth interview with Sputnik, Sergei Sanovsky, a former training instructor for one of Ukraine’s most notorious far-right volunteer militias, shared his story about how he went from being hailed a “hero of Maidan” to getting kidnapped and tortured by Ukraine’s Security Service for refusing to run an extrajudicial death squad. By Andrei Veselov, with contributions from Alexei Sakhnin and Yevgeny Belenky ‘A Simple Hero of the Maidan’ Sergei Sanovsky comes from a long line of career military men. Before 2014, he served in a Spetsnaz detachment of Ukraine’s Internal Troops, commanding a reconnaissance group and working as a sniper instructor before leaving military service. Sergei participated in the Maidan street protests, which rocked Ukraine in late 2013 and early 2014 and culminated in the overthrow of...

Sergei Malgavko/TASS On June 26, the US State Department once again announced that Turkey would be targeted by sanctions if it receives S-400 air defense systems from Russia under a contract signed by Ankara and Moscow earlier. The State Department recalled that this decision is a result of the bill President Donald Trump signed into law last summer, which seeks to punish companies that do business with the Russian defense industry. “We made it clear that if Turkey buys S-400s… there will be consequences. We will introduce sanctions within Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA),” Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell said at a hearing of the  Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “We believe that we have existing legal authorities that would allow us to withhold transfer under certain circumstances, including national security concerns,” he said. “We believe that we continue to have the time and ability ...