MOSCOW – Moscow believes that conditioning visa-free travel with the EU on human rights is "a politicized point," Russia's ambassador-at-large Anvar Azimov told a news conference on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – There are no opponents to establishing a visa- free regime with Russia among EU countries, special envoy of the Russian Foreign Ministry Anvar Azimov declared on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – The European Union’s third expert mission on visa abolition projects will visit Russian on April 8 through 12, and the fourth such mission is expected in June or July, Russian ambassador at large Anvar Azimov told a news conference on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – It will be hardly possible to cancel visas in relations between Russia and the EU by the Sochi Olympics, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s special envoy, Anvar Azimov, told a news conference in Moscow.
MOSCOW – Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party /LDPR/ Vladimir Zhirinovsky demanded the arrest of lawmaker Dmitry Gudkov Jr for "high treason," following the latter's recent visit to the United States. The house committee for procedures should "demand that Gudkov give up his mandate," while the committee for security must facilitate the opening of a criminal case against Gudkov, a member of A Just Russia Party," Zhirinovsky said during a 10-minute speech in parliament on Tuesday.
BELGRAD – President Tomislav Nikolic of Serbia begins a two-day visit to Belarus on Tuesday. During the visit, he will hold talks with his counterpart Alexander Lukashenko and other representatives of the country’s leadership.
KIEV – Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov has called on all political forces in the parliament to finally reach a compromise and resume the work of the country’s supreme legislative body.
BISHKEK – Youth organizations rallied in the central square of Kyrgyzstan’’s capital Bishkek on Tuesday to demand Kyrgyz politicians stop destabilizing the situation in the country.
MOSCOW – Head of the committee for procedures under the State Duma lower house of the Russian parliament Sergei Popov objected to the proposed ban on lawmakers' free foreign trips, and called for formalizing all visits as official trips, signed by faction leaders.
MOSCOW – The European Union’s estimate of immigration risks posed by Russia is overrated, Anvar Azimov, the ambassador-at-large of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – As many as 800,502 candidates have already been delegated by political parties, public organizations, municipalities and voter groups to district election commissions across Russia, the Russian Central Election Commission said on Tuesday citing data of the Vybory (Elections) automated voting system as of March 11.
MINSK – Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic who’s paying a visit to Belarus said on Tuesday that Serbia had not given up its position of principle on Kosovo & Metohija despite efforts to join the European Union.
MINSK – Belarus and Serbia have a political will in order to maintain and continue the dialogue launched many years ago, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said during a meeting with his Serbian counterpart Tomislav Nikolic on Tuesday. The Serbian head of state arrived with a two-day official visit in Minsk.
MINSK – Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic decorated his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko with Serbia’s top state award – the Order of the Republic of Serbia – “to commend his contribution to developing and strengthening peaceful cooperation and friendly ties.”
MINSK – Belarus supports Serbia’s territorial integrity and believes that it’s necessary to work out a coordinated solution to the Kosovo, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and his Serbian counterpart Tomislav Nikolic said in a joint declaration issued on results of their talks on Tuesday.
CHISINAU – The opposition Party of Communists of Moldova has rejected the invitation of President Nicolae Timofti to participate in the consultations to form a new cabinet and insists on parliament’s dissolution.
MOSCOW – Trade turnover between Russia and Abkhazia has reached 292.2 million U.S. dollars. More than 50 companies with Russian participation are active in this Caucasian republic, the Kremlin press service reported ahead of the meeting between the two presidents, Vladimir Putin of Russia and Alexander Ankvab of Abkhazia, due on Tuesday.
NOVO-OGAREVO – Russian President Vladimir Putin and his visiting Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan met here on Tuesday to state the positive development of the relations between the two countries in all spheres.
NOVO-OGARYOVO – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday used the opportunity of the meeting with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan to congratulate him again on his convincing victory in the presidential election.
NOVO-OGARYOVO – Presidential aide Elvira Nabiullina on Tuesday asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to appoint Sergei Ignatyev, the incumbent Central Bank chairman, as her adviser if she becomes the bank’s new chief.
GORKI – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has called to take efforts to improve tax and customs control in the country. Speaking at a government meeting dedicated to issues of extra budgetary revenues on Tuesday, Medvedev reminded that the distribution of extra incomes is regulated by the budgetary rule.
GORKI – Extra oil and gas revenues of the Russian budget may reach 230 billion roubles, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Tuesday. “We expect that the adjusted forecasts will yield 230 billion roubles in extra oil and gas revenues,” he said. At the same time, according to the finance minister, non-oil and gas revenues will be decreased.
BUENOS AIRES – Businesses from St. Petersburg and Buenos Aires on Monday discussed prospects for mutually advantageous cooperation. Vyacheslav Makarov, the chairman of the legislative assembly of St. Petersburg, said the business seminar in the Argentinean capital “provides a good platform for communication and exchange of experience.”
KIEV – Ukraine’s government plans to use all resources to tackle economic problems and avoid recession, Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov said in an interview with the local TV channels on Tuesday.
KIEV – The Ukrainian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade has registered an appeal of the republic’s four oil refineries on the starting of an anti-subsidiary investigation against the import of petroleum products from Belarus, the Ukrainian government’s representative told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
BAKU – Ukraine is interested in the drawing of Azerbaijani crude for the processing at its oil refineries, Ukrainian Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Eduard Stavitsky said during his Tuesday’s meeting with Azerbaijani Minister of Industry and Energy Natiq Aliyev.
MOSCOW – Russia’s inflation will make up 0.5-0.6 percent in March 2013, the Russian Economic Development Ministry underlined in its weekly survey of the country’s social and economic development.
KIEV – Ukrainian-Azerbaijani cooperation in the energy sphere develops dynamically, but the two sides have a colossal unused potential for its further stepping up, Ukrainian Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Eduard Stavitsky said during his Tuesday’s meeting with Azerbaijani Minister of Industry and Energy Natiq Aliyev.
KIEV – Ukraine decreased import of oil and petroleum products in value terms by 15.8 percent in February, as compared to the first month of the year, to stand at 424.507 million U.S. dollars, the Ukrainian State Customs Service said in a report made public on Tuesday.
UNITED NATIONS – U.N. Secretary General Ban KI-moon on Tuesday presented condolences over the death of Russian pilots in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The United Nations mission in Congo has launched investigation into the Mi-8 helicopter crash that had killed the crew onboard.
MOSCOW – Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill met with Abkhazian President Alexander Ankvab, who arrived on an official visit in Russia on Tuesday. The negotiations were held at the residence of the Russian patriarch at the St. Daniil Monastery.
MOSCOW – The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed the release of two Russian citizens and a Romanian citizen, who are the crewmen of the ship Esther C, from pirate captivity.
MOSCOW – Lithuania has unveiled its visa centre in Moscow. This will be the world’s unique centre, which will start its operation on March 14, Lithuanian ambassador to Russia Renatas Norkus said at the inauguration ceremony on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – Bolshoi Theatre ballet artistic director Sergei Filin, who is convalescing in Germany after acid attack, officially denied the mass media reports alleging his plans not to return to Russia.
MOSCOW – State Duma deputy Andrei Lugovoy stated that he quits the trial over the murder of former officer of the Federal Security Service Alexander Litvinenko in London. The preliminary hearings in this trial have already passed in Britain, the court granted the status of the party concerned to Lugovoy.
ASTANA – Kazakhstan plans to gradually equalize retirement age for men and women, Labour and Social Protection Minister Serik Abdenov said representing a bill on pension coverage and relevant amendments on Tuesday.
BAKU – Russia’s Public Chamber and Azerbaijan’s Council of State Support for Non-Governmental Organizations have signed a memorandum of cooperation. The document sets common frames for cooperation between the two structures.
MOSCOW – The Holy Synod on Tuesday discusses preparation for the celebration of the 1025th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus and commemoration of new martyrs. Patriarch Kirill, opening the Synod meeting in St Daniel monastery in Moscow, stressed the need for more active work for canonization of saints.
MOSCOW – Amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure are suggested by Vladimir Lukin, the human rights commissioner of the Russian Federation, and Boris Titov, the commissioner for entrepreneurs’ rights. They, specifically, suggest that there must be a limit to suspects’ detention in custody, to all without exception.
MOSCOW – An overall number of celestial bodies that might pose a potential threat to the Earth is 200,000–300,000, with only about two percent of them having been listed in catalogues, Boris Shustov, the director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Astronomy, said on Tuesday at a roundtable meeting at the Federation Council, or upper parliament house, dedicated to problems of the Earth’s protection against space risks.
MOSCOW – Humanity may lose the geostationary orbit in 20 years from now, if it does not address the problem of space garbage fast enough, the chief of the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) Vladimir Popovkin said on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – Norwegian inspectors will make an observation flight over Russia within the framework of the Treaty on Open Skies from March 12 to March 15, the Defence Ministry’s press service told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY – The Mi-8 helicopter has found the snowmobile tourists that went missing in Kamchatka alive and well near the Chayevoi pass in the area of the Nalychevo Nature Park. Rescuers managed to establish with them satellite phone communication. The people need no help, spokesperson for the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry’s (EMERCOM) main department for the Kamchatka Territory Yulia Ananyeva told Itar-Tass.
MOSCOW – Russia’s emergencies ministry has sent another plane with humanitarian aid to Syria, a ministry spokeswoman told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. “At 10:05 Moscow time on Tuesday, an Ilyushin-62 airplane with humanitarian aid took off from the Ramenskoye airfield outside Moscow for Syria’s Latakia,” Irina Rossius said.
MOSCOW – Following the recent meteorite shower in Russia’s Urals regions, the emergencies ministry has set up a working group tasked to elaborate new approaches to the protection of the population against asteroid threats, Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov said on Tuesday.
NALCHIK – At least three militants were killed in the outskirts of the village of Baksanyonok, Baksan district of Kabardino-Balkaria on Tuesday morning, a law-enforcement source told Itar-Tass.
MOSCOW – The National Antiterrorist Committee said a group of weapon traffickers has been destroyed in Kabardino-Balkaria. "On March 11–12, the Federal Security Service, in cooperation with police, conducted a special operation to neutralize a regional criminal group which had been supplying weapons to the militants in the region.
NAZRAN – A serviceman was seriously injured in Ingushetia's Sunzha district during a search for militants, the republic's law-enforcement bodies told Itar-Tass. The serviceman tripped a homemade explosive device near the village of Galashki. "The doctors said he's in critical condition," police reported.
MOSCOW – More than 20 tons of heroin and morphine have been seized in a joint operation staged by the Russian drug police and Afghanistan’s law enforcers in the territory of that country, Viktor Ivanov, the director of the Russian anti-drug authority, said on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – Law-enforcement agents searched offices of a number of companies within the criminal case over theft of shares of a Murmansk region electric utility, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – A criminal case was opened in Moscow against high-placed personnel of the central office of the Federal Customs Service /FTS/, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – The Federal Service for Control over the Circulation of Drugs (FSKN) and the Nicaraguan law enforcers confiscated about 1.2 tonnes of cocaine in a special operation, FSKN head Viktor Ivanov told reporters on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – Police are searching the Central House of Art Workers /TsDRI/ in the criminal case over illegal acquisition of assets, an Interior Ministry official told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – The Investigative Committee /SK/ is looking for the mini-bus driver who dropped off a schoolgirl in frosty weather because she could not pay the fare. The child went missing after the incident, SK spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – Russia’s Former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov on Tuesday testified on 11 pages on cases of using soldiers to build a road leading to the Zhitnoye holiday home in the Astrakhan region, Serdyukov’s lawyer Genrikh Padva told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.