Russia & CIS

June 20 is the day the world expresses solidarity with refugees, and this year the number of refugees worldwide reached a record high, Furio De Angelis, Head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Baku Office, said at an event dedicated to the World Refugee Day, AzVision.az reports.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order regarding measures to construct the Garamaryam-Ismayilli-Shaki (5 km)-Kelband-Girk highway in the Ismayilli region.

AWA UK (Azerbaijani Women's Association in UK ) and Khumar Rzayeva (art expert and curator) have held one of the Summer highlight events in London on June 16.

Vietnam hopes to increase trade with Azerbaijan, as well as volume of bilateral investments, Minister of Industry and Trade of the country Tran Tuan Anh told reporters June 20.

About 100 servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Turkey came to our country to participate in celebrations dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said.

The problem of refugees and IDPs, which radically changed the people’s lives in Azerbaijan and disturbed the society, is now befalling many countries, said Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Ali Ahmadov.

Azerbaijan and Vietnam have signed the protocol of the second meeting of the joint Intergovernmental Commission on economic, trade, scientific and technical cooperation in Baku on June 20.

The Russians start to express their protests against the recent decision of the Russian government to raise the retirement age. People start taking to the streets to say their words against the reform. The first wave of protest rallies swept through Novosibirsk, Ryazan and Ukhta, fontanka.ru reports. Rallies are expected to take place in a few Siberian citifies on June 24 and July 1, even though the rules for holding public meetings and rallies in Russia have been tightened for the time of the World Cup. Thus, all types of meetings not related to sports events should be held only in places indicated by local authorities in prior agreement with the Federal Security Service. On June 14, the Russian government approved the final version of the draft law on the gradual increase of the retirement age starting from 2019. Thus, the retirement age for men will be 65 years by 2028, and 63 years for women by 2034.The Russians immediately responded to the move by filing a petition on the Change.org website with a requirement to cancel the retirement age reform. The petition has already collected more than 1.3 million signatures. Vadim Gorshenin, the chairman of the board of directors of Pravda.Ru, believes that all the talking about the fairness of the pension reform is ridiculous, because the new law is all about the exploitation of citizens by the state. In a nutshell, Mr. Gorshenin believes, the state wants to make people work until they die. "Just look at the pension allowance that the state gives Russian citizens. Let's take a look at the pension starting from 2018. The average monthly pension of 14,100 rubles ($233) gives 169,200 rubles ($2,800). Thus, it will take a citizen, who budgets himself to the minimum monthly wage, seven years just to save this amount in accordance with deductions to the Pension Fund. If the state offers the average Russian man the amount of less than 169,200 rubles for all of his lifetime work, given the average life expectancy of 65.9 years, then a question arises of who the average Russian man needs to work for all of his life," Vadim Gorshenin notes. Interestingly, rumour has it that Chechnya is not going to raise the retirement age because of many years of war that the republic had experienced in the past. According to unconfirmed reports, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said that the people of Chechnya had been suffering for ten years, and every Chechen in the republic had either lost their breadwinner, become disabled or is a parent of many children. In the meantime, the Russian authorities are closely watching how the general public is going to react to the most recent unpopular move of the government.

Iran will begin uranium enrichment at its Fordow plant and will install new nuclear equipment at its Natanz facility if it withdraws from a nuclear deal with major powers, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi said.

Turkish security forces arrested eight foreign nationals in Istanbul for alleged links to the Daesh terror group, a police source said on Thursday.

"By the end of 2018, the inflation rate is projected to become single-digit,” Chairman of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan Elman Rustamov said at a press conference today, APA-Economics reports.

The flag of Azerbaijan has been raised outside the city mayor’s office in the historic U.S. city of Philadelphia in commemoration of the centenary of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR).

Under the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, June 15 and 16 will be non-working days in Azerbaijan to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, APA reports.

Military units of the armed forces of Armenia violated ceasefire 82 times throughout the day, using large-caliber machine guns.

Oil prices eased on Thursday, dragged down by rising output, although strong demand and a drop in U.S. fuel inventories provided the market with some support.

“Nursultan Nazarbayov: Life road” book dedicated to the life and activity of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has been launched at the Heydar Aliyev Center.

The Fed has raised rates seven times since late 2015 on the back of the economy’s continuing expansion.

Azerbaijan and Russia continue to work on border demarcation, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov told reporters June 13, adding that this is a long process.

Turkish minister says train to start operating on June 18 from Iran's Tabriz to eastern Turkey's Van province.