If you're a Russian-speaker, you might enjoy this collection of humorous tweets compiled by RFE/RL's Belarus Service on the state of the Russian ruble.
And here's a video of a vox pop conducted in Moscow by RFE/RL's Tom Balmforth, who was guaging reaction on the streets to the flailing ruble:
Our multimedia department has issued this Reuters video of NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg saying Russia was violating the cease-fire in Ukraine and not respecting agreements reached in Minsk, Belarus, to defuse the conflict.
RFE/RL's Rikard Jozwiak has sent us this item from Brussels on reaction to Moscow's decision to abandon the South Stream project:
BRUSSELS -- A senior European Union official says Russia's surprise abandonment of the long-planned South Stream natural-gas pipeline project underscores the need for the EU to diversify its sources of energy supplies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Turkey on December 1 that Russia was shelving plans for South Stream, a multibillion-dollar project to pipe gas under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and then deeper into the EU, bypassing Ukraine.
European Commission Vice President Kristalina Georgieva said in Brussels on December 2 that "Russia's decision to stop South Stream and the way it was taken shows why the diversification of energy sources is important for Europe."
She said the EU would "closely examine the consequences of this decision and how we can speed up the interconnection of member states."
(With reporting by AFP and Reuters)
Meanwhile, Radio Prague has been reporting the following:
The Czech Republic will repatriate between 30 and 50 ethnic Czechs from eastern Ukraine, the daily Lidové noviny reported on Monday [December 1] quoting government sources. The paper says that the Interior Ministry has started verifying the identity of people from the conflict-ridden Donbas region who have applied for repatriation; if their Czech ancestry is confirmed, they could be repatriated over the next several months. The move comes after months of debates on how many, if any at all, ethnic Czechs from Ukraine could relocate to the Czech Republic.
Read the entire report here
This is just in from RFE/RL's news desk:
Ukrainian lawmakers are expected to approve the full list of a new cabinet led by Arseniy Yatsenyuk by the end of December 2.
President Petro Poroshenko on December 2 recommended that Ukrainian lawmakers reappoint Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak.
According to the constitution, the Ukrainian president has the right to suggest appointments for foreign and defense ministers.
Klimkin has been serving as foreign minister since June and Poltorak has been defense minister since October.
Poroshenko wrote on Facebook earlier on December 2 that he had signed a decree on granting Ukrainian citizenship to three foreign nationals -- American Natalya Yaresko, Georgian Aleksandr Kvitashvili, and Lithuanian Aivaras Abromavicius.
Media reports say the three could join the new cabinet as finance, health, and economy ministers.
(Facebook, pravda.com.ua, UNIAN)