And here's a sanctions update from RFE/RL's news desk:
French President Francois Hollande has said he wants Western sanctions on Russia to be lifted if Moscow respects Ukraine's sovereignty.
In an interview with French radio on January 5, Hollande called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity, to stop supporting pro-Russian separatists in the country's east, and to allow Kyiv to develop economic relations with the West.
Hollande also said Putin "doesn't want to annex eastern Ukraine, he told me that."
Meanwhile, Germany’s Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told a German newspaper on January 4 that some "forces" in Europe and the United States wanted sanctions to cripple Russia, which would "risk a conflagration."
"We want to help get the Ukraine conflict resolved, but not to push Russia to its knees," he added.
The European Union, United States, and other countries have imposed sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Crimea in March and its support for the separatists, whose conflict with government troops has killed more than 4,700 people in eastern Ukraine since April.
(Reuters, AFP)