Breaking News, 17th of July, 2018

Italian Minister of internal affairs Matteo Salvini announced that Italy will be one of the first votes to agitate for the lifting of EU sanctions against Russia, RIA NEWS reported. «We are one of the first voices to support this view» — Salvini said at a press conference in Moscow. According to him — Italy is moving towards the goal of lifting the sanctions against the Russia, which means that a number of related measures are planned before the end of the year.

US Senator John McCain said that the statement of Donald Trump after the talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin was «one of the most shameful statements of the US president» in his memory. John McCain added that the damage caused by the «naivety and selfishness of the American president and his sympathy for the autocrats» is difficult to measure, CNN reports. John McCain called the summit in Helsinki «a tragic mistake», since Donald Trump was not only incapable, but also did not want to «resist Putin.»

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov evaluated the success of the meeting between Russian and US presidents in Helsinki. Sergei Lavrov replied on a question about the outcome of the meeting that the talks between the two leaders «went better than great — it was awesome» RIA News reports. Putin and Trump held a face-to-face meeting on Monday — it lasted for 2 hours and 10 minutes. Donald Trump called the talks «a very good start.» Russian President Vladimir Putin also said that the negotiations with the American leader were held in a frank and businesslike atmosphere and turned out to be «very successful» and useful.

The Russian ambassador was called to the Estonian Foreign Ministry where he received a note of protest in relation to the Russian planes that allegedly violated Estonian airspace. As the press service of the Estonian Defense Forces reported, incidents occurred near the island of Vindloo in the Gulf of Finland on 16th of July. The Estonian military claimed that the two planes, Airbus A319 and IL-96 had invaded the airspace of Estonia and left it in less than a minute.

An explosion occurred in St. Petersburg. According to the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, a gas container exploded at the »Avtogen» workshop that refills gas cylinders. It is located in the industrial zone. Two workers died, and according to the TASS source — they were brothers who came to work in the northern capital of Russia from Central Asia. It is noted that there was no following fire at the site of the explosion.

The Syrian army entered the large city of Jasin, which is located at the junction between the provinces of Quneitra and Daraa. The local terrorists of the «moderate opposition» agreed to the terms of surrender to the government — they have already begun surrendering their heavy and medium weapons. Jasin is a large city in the province of Quneitra — it was previously positioned as the main stronghold of the «moderate opposition» in the territories of south-western Syria.