MOSCOW – U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Europe Victoria Nuland met on May 18 with senior Russian officials to discuss ways of “deepening our engagement” in implementing a shaky Ukraine cease-fire, a senior department official said. She told reporters in Moscow that they discussed “concrete steps” and “particularly dug in on how the United States might be able to support the process” of implementing the cease-fire. (RFE/RL)
SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine – A Russian nationalist biker gang has been awarded a free plot of the land taken from Ukraine. According to a document seen by RFE/RL, the Night Wolves were given land in the Crimean peninsula city of Sevastopol to build a “multipurpose patriotic center for extreme sports.” The document, which bore the official city seal, gave no reason why the land was being gifted. Russian authorities in Sevastopol have given the bikers six months to draw up plans for their center, and promised that there will be public hearings on the planned construction. The land in question in the Black Sea port city has a high market value, with a square meter going for 96,000 rubles ($1,960), according to a reporter with the Crimean Desk of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service. The Night Wolves are backers of Russian President Vladimir Putin – who has ridden with them – and supported Russia’s controversial annexation of Crimea in March 2014. The Night Wolves are subject to U.S. sanctions for alleged active involvement in Crimea and for helping recruit separatist fighters for Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. The biker gang sparked controversy in Europe earlier this month when it set off from Moscow to Berlin to mark the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. (Crimean Desk, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)