Russia's Foreign Ministry renames Europe branch to Department of European Problems

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has renamed its former Department of Pan-European Cooperation to the Department of European Problems, the pro-state news outlet Kommersant reported on Nov. 2.

Russia has strained its relationship with the West following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, facing heavy sanctions and an international arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for President Vladimir Putin over the kidnapping of Ukrainian children.

"Changes in geopolitical realities," such as "the obvious degradation of multilateral cooperation structures in Europe," led to the renaming, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told Russian pro-state news agency RBK.

In another sign of deteriorating relations, Russia announced the suspension of its participation in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly earlier this year.

Moscow also blocked access to more than 81 European media outlets, including the Kyiv Independent, as a response to the decision of the Council of the EU that banned access to four key Russian state-run or controlled media outlets: Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Voice of Europe, RIA Novosti, and Izvestiya.

Russia’s first peace offer in 2022 was all but Ukraine’s surrender, leaked documents show

The six-page document envisioned Ukraine reducing its army to 50,000 people, five times less than the country had by 2022, and accepting the independence of the country’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, by then partly occupied by Russia.

The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Denisova