The organizers of the World Economic Forum decided to lift restrictions and invite Russian businessmen who fell under sanctions to Davos. According to Interfax, citing a source, an official delegation from Russia will take part in the forum.

Maria Butina, who has been arrested and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to harm US interests, is ready to testify in yet another case. According to The Daily Beast, the Washington federal prosecutor's office has filed a motion with the court to secretly move Butina to testify again in an unnamed criminal case. Earlier, Butina made a deal with the investigation and pleaded guilty in court to conspiring with persons in the United States to harm the interests of the United States.

Evgenia Albats talked with a recognized expert in the field of assessing political risk Jan Bremmer, Eurasia Group Trump will not meet with Putin until the latter releases Ukrainian sailors detained in the Kerch Strait; The European Union will not because of this incident between Russia and Ukraine to introduce new sanctions against Moscow, because it fears even more escalation-this is the news of only one day of one outgoing week.

- Evgenia Albats talked with a recognized expert in the field of assessing political risk Jan Bremmer, Eurasia Group Trump will not meet with Putin until the latter releases Ukrainian sailors detained in the Kerch Strait; The European Union will not because of this incident between Russia and Ukraine to introduce new sanctions against Moscow, because it fears even more escalation-this is the news of only one day of one outgoing week.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, at the end of the unification council in Kyiv, announced the creation of the Ukrainian Local Orthodox Autocephalous Church. Epiphany Dumenko was elected primate of the new church - Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, commenting on the situation with the disruption of concerts of musicians popular with young people, called the method of “grabbing and not letting go” unpromising. “This needs to be treated very carefully, but with which I completely agree - if it is impossible to stop, then you need to lead and direct accordingly. But how to do it, it depends on us, ” Interfax quotes Putin’s speech at a meeting of the Council for Culture and Art in St. Petersburg .

After French President Emmanuel Macron this week announced a number of steps to meet the protesters, today hundreds, but not thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Paris and other cities. On the Champs-Élysées, there are far fewer "yellow vests" than last week, a correspondent for Le Monde notes . At first, several hundred demonstrators gathered around the Arc de Triomphe decided to join those who came to the Place de l'Opera, but the police cordons did not allow this.

On December 15, a unifying council began in Kyiv, the task of which is to create a local Ukrainian Orthodox Church. All the bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church were invited to the council. According to Gordon , only two metropolitans of the UOC-MP arrived.

U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Administration's Office of Management and Budget, will be acting White House Chief of Staff. “I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, Director of Management and Budget, will become acting White House Chief of Staff replacing General John Kelly," Trump tweeted. Earlier it was reported that John Kelly will resign.