Russian-backed separatists are planning a fresh offensive in eastern Ukraine that could come within a matter of months, warns retired General Wesley Clark, a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander.

“What is happening now is preparations for a renewed offensive from the east,” and this could take place following Orthodox Easter, on April 12, and “most probably” before VE Day on May 8, Clark said on March 30, citing multiple local sources he spoke with on a recent fact-finding mission to Ukraine.

“That’s what all the talking is about right now, preparing the cover for the next attack,” he said.

http://www.newsweek.com/wesley-clark-putin-plans-spring-offensive-ukraine-318393?piano_t=1

An international report has found that Ukrainian investigations into the deadly clashes that took place during the 2013-14 Euromaidan protests in Kiev have failed to hold law enforcement officials to account.

The report by a Council of Europe-sponsored international advisory panel, said that the investigations into the demonstrations, which led to the ousting of president Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014, had not satisfied the European convention on human rights. They “lacked practical independence” because in many cases, the police were essentially tasked with investigating themselves, it said.

British lawyer and former president of the European court Nicolas Bratza, who led the international advisory panel, told journalists in Kiev on Tuesday: “In particular, the ministry of the interior had been given an investigative role in crimes which had undeniably been committed by law enforcement officers,”

The violence against protesters during the demonstrations, which were sparked by Yanukovych’s decision to abandon an association agreement with the EU in favour of a bailout from Russian president Vladimir Putin, was a key moment in the ascension of the new pro-western government.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/31/ukrainian-investigations-into-kiev-clashes-lacked-independence

The discount at which Russia has been selling natural gas to Ukraine in the first quarter will remain in effect for the whole of the second quarter, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said on Tuesday.

"This package is being extended for three months, as has been announced today. It's being extended without any changes, as was said during the meeting today," Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/economic/258142.html

The formula set in the 2009 gas contract with account of keeping discounts will lead to a fall in the price of Russian gas for Ukraine starting in Q2 2015 to less than $250 for 1,000 cubic meters, Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said.

"I know that the price will be lower than $250. We are expecting that this will be $248 according to the formula. [But] calculations there are changing every day depending on the formula," he told journalists after a meeting with the government on Tuesday.

http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/economic/258144.html

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said Russia would extend the current gas deal with Ukraine by another three months starting April 1.

Putin made the decision while attending a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in the day.

"Let's do that ...We will take a look after three months and see what is happening in this area and after that take an additional decision," Putin was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Russian Prime Minister Medvedev showed his support for the decision.

http://www.china.org.cn/world/2015-04/01/content_35210409.htm

(Bloomberg) -- Russian equities are on the rebound three months after they plunged in the worst sell-off among the world’s biggest equity markets.

A Bloomberg gauge of U.S.-traded Russian stocks posted a 17 percent gain in the first quarter, the most since the three months ended in March 2012, following the biggest drop in six years. Government bonds also rebounded, and the ruble rallied the most among 31 major global currencies.

The turnaround came as oil prices rose from the lowest levels since 2009 and the crisis in eastern Ukraine eased. Brent crude stabilizing at around $55 per barrel and a cease-fire in the year-long conflict in the former Soviet republic may support a further rebound, according to Rye, Man & Gor and Otkritie Capital Ltd.

“Though a lot of investors are still pricing in the worst scenarios for the ruble and stocks, I have a feeling that the worst has passed and things will become better,” Anvar Gilyazitdinov, who manages $10 million at Rye, Man & Gor in Moscow, said by phone on March 31. “There will be headwinds ahead and some industries are in better shape than others, but we are at least moving in the right direction.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-31/russian-stocks-post-best-quarter-in-three-years-on-oil-ukraine

ATHENS, Greece — Greece's new government disagrees with sanctions against Russia, and wants to boost trade ties with the country, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said before a visit to Moscow next week.

Speaking in an interview with Russia's Tass news agency published Tuesday, Tsipras said he considers sanctions to be a "road to nowhere" and that the reciprocal embargo Russia has imposed on food from the European Union has "seriously damaged" his country's economy.

The U.S. and the EU imposed crippling economic sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and support for an insurgency in eastern Ukraine. Moscow retaliated by banning most Western food imports — an action that has hurt Greek agricultural exports at a time when the bailed-out country has been struggling through a deep financial crisis.

Since being elected in January, Tsipras' coalition government between his radical left Syriza party and a small right-wing nationalist party has advocated warmer ties with Russia, and has criticized past Greek governments for following the EU line regarding Moscow too closely.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/03/31/world/europe/ap-eu-greece-russia.html

I'm afraid I don't do movies much.

Good news.

(Reuters) - Ukraine, Russia and Russian-backed separatists are discussing prospects for extending a pull-back of weapons in east Ukraine to include tanks and smaller weapons systems, a press aide to Kiev's representative at peace talks said on Thursday.

"In order to reduce tension in the region the ... mutual withdrawal of tanks, 80-millimetre mortar and also of weapons of up to 100 millimetre calibre is being discussed," a press aide to former President Leonid Kuchma told Reuters.

Up to now, only weapons of more than 100 millimetre calibre including large artillery, heavy mortar and powerful rocket systems have been pulled back from the line of contact between government forces and separatist rebels under an agreement reached in Minsk, Belarus, in February.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/04/02/uk-ukraine-crisis-weapons-idUKKBN0MT1LN20150402?rpc=401

Only a year after the Maidan protests swept a pro-Western government into power, Kiev's new regime is in danger of collapsing among endemic corruption, a leading security analyst said.

Mark Galeotti, clinical professor of global affairs at New York University, has advised bodies including the Foreign Office and Interpol, and has spent more than three decades researching the corrosive networks of criminality and corruption in eastern Europe.

He said unless Kiev makes serious efforts to purge the country of corruption, urgent international financial assistance would dry up and popular support for the new government could collapse.

"The frustrations that led to Maidan have not been resolved," Galleotti said. "There is a lot of frustrated potential floating around. With all this potential there is the risk that very quickly some new force could cohere and arise."

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ukraine-government-could-collapse-under-corruption-warns-security-expert-mark-galeotti-1494782

(Reuters) - Ukraine has asked for 1 billion cubic metres of gas imports from Russia in April, trebling the amount it received in March, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Saturday.

On Thursday, Ukraine's state gas concern Naftogaz and Russia's Gazprom signed an interim deal for cheaper supplies of gas from Russia for the next three months, providing a breathing space for both sides in their protracted wrangle over pricing.

"Naftogaz has contracted 1 billion cubic metres of gas for April," Novak said in an interview with the state-run Rossiya television station.

This suggests that Kiev will be getting about 33 million cubic metres of gas per day, while in March the figure stood at around 10 million per day, Novak said in the interview for the news show 'Vesti on Saturday' with Sergei Brilyov.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/04/04/ukraine-crisis-russia-gas-idUKL6N0X106520150404

BRATISLAVA, April 4 (Reuters) - Both sides in the conflict in Ukraine could pull back weapons under 100mm calibre from the front line in a bid to boost confidence in a ceasefire, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday.

Lavrov said there was a common aim for a ceasefire in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions agreed in Minsk in February to hold indefinitely, although there have been some violations.

Lavrov said parties involved in the conflict as well as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe were discussing what could be done on the top of the Minsk agreement which, among other measures, involved the pullback of weapons with calibre over 100mm, including large artillery, heavy mortar and powerful rocket systems.

"It is necessary to monitor keeping mainly the military part of the Minsk agreements....There is a possibility to pull back troops with calibre under 100mm," Lavrov said.

http://www.trust.org/item/20150404122529-8ig03/