In a series of Tweets today, German MP and member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Marieluise Beck described the Russian occupation in Luhansk as she saw it – and the ominous signs of its potential annexation.


In the messages, Beck says that the city is “full of Russian soldiers,” and that an engineering brigade has already begun the reconstruction of infrastructure, including electrical lines, to Russia.


Beck also confirms that Russian passports are already being handed out in the city, and that Russian soldiers are distributing to locals cash sums of Russian currency.

A BBC team has been attacked in the southern Russian city of Astrakhan.
We had gone to investigate reports of Russian servicemen being killed near the border with Ukraine.


As we left a cafe and approached our car, we were confronted and attacked by at least three aggressive individuals.



Using physical violence the men grabbed our camera, smashed it on the road, and then escaped with it in a getaway car. During the scuffle the BBC cameraman was knocked to the ground and beaten.



The team is now safe and back in Moscow.



Following the attack, we spent more than four hours being questioned in a local police station.


We discovered later that while we were there, back in the car some of our recording equipment had been tampered with.

The hard drive of the main computer as well as several memory cards with video material had been wiped clean.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was the only participant of the quadrilateral summit that took place on August 26 in Minsk who, upon arrival to the National airport did not try the bread and salt, as per the old Slavic tradition. According to our source from the technical personnel of their airport, the treat for the Russian President had been prepared and checked by the security services. Traditional girls in national dress who were supposed to bring it to him were ready as well. However, at the last moment the order came to cancel the greeting.