Eastern Europe

MOSCOW. April 6 (Interfax) - Ukraine's economy is projected to grow 0.5% this year after shrinking 29.2% in 2022, and to rise 3.5% next year, the World Bank said in an Economic Update for the region published on Thursday.The World Bank said in January...

TASHKENT. April 6 (Interfax) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is organizing a financial package of $205 million for Masdar of the United Arab Emirates to build three greenfield solar power plants with total installed capacity ...

MOSCOW. April 6 (Interfax) - The increase in FX revenues from exports on the back of rising energy prices will reverse the current trend of the ruble weakening, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said."Changes in the exchange rate are connected w...

MOSCOW. April 5 (Interfax) - Kerbin LLC has received 5% of Korablik-R, the operating company of the Korablik chain of stores for children's goods, according to data of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.The remaining 95% of the LLC belongs t...

MOSCOW. April 5 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal has discussed the mechanisms required to expand production and presence on the Ukrainian market with German Vice Chancellor and Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Hab...

MOSCOW. April 5 (Interfax) - Polish President Andrzej Duda has said a new treaty between Poland and Ukraine is being prepared."We are working on a new treaty between our countries. The future will fill this treaty with content. We hope that we will be...

MOSCOW. April 5 (Interfax) - During a press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has invited representatives of Polish businesses to move into Ukraine intensively and engage in its reconstruction no...

MOSCOW. April 5 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has been decorated with the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest award, "in recognition of his outstanding merits in deepening relations between Poland and Ukraine," Ukra...

MOSCOW. April 5 (Interfax) - MHP agroholding, Ukraine's largest producer of chicken meat, intends to sow nearly the entire area of 352,500 hectares in 12 regions of the country this season, while reducing the area under grain and increasing the area u...

CHISINAU. April 4 (Interfax) - Moldova will no longer co-finance the Mir television channel run by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Moldovan government press secretary Daniel Voda said.The government made this decision on Tuesday, while endor...

CHISINAU. April 4 (Interfax) - The Moldovan government has not yet paid two foreign companies that are auditing Moldovagaz's historical debt to Gazprom , Moldovan Energy Minister Viktor Parlikov said."It is not yet known when the results of the au...

YEKATERINBURG. April 4 (Interfax) - The Board of Directors of VSMPO-Avisma decided to prematurely terminate the employment of the company's CEO Dmitry Osipov at a meeting on Monday, the company said."Prematurely terminate the powers of the General...

BISHKEK. April 4 (Interfax) - Kyrgyzstan is introducing a tax on the income of mining and processing enterprises that sell ore and concentrate containing precious and base metals.Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov signed the corresponding amendments to tax le...

MOSCOW. April 4 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal met with German Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck and representatives of a number of German companies to discuss mechanisms to enl...

MOSCOW. April 4 (Interfax) - DTEK Kiev Grids, an operator of the electricity distribution system, expects to repair and upgrade 832 power facilities, including 12 high-voltage substations and 100 kilometers of overhead and cable lines, in preparation for ...

MOSCOW. April 4 (Interfax) - Current state support measures for demand in the Russian auto industry are currently optimal for solving the main short-term task in the industry - increasing car production, President Vladimir Putin said.The issue of expandin...

ASTANA. April 4 (Interfax) - Almasadam Satkaliyev has been appointed Kazakhstan's Energy Minister, with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev having signed the corresponding decree, and the text of said decree has been published on the president's websi...

MOSCOW. April 4 (Interfax) - The availability of buyers is required for the resumption of Russian gas supply through Nord Stream pipelines, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.Journalists asked Peskov whether Russia was ready to resume gas supply via the...

TULA. April 4 (Interfax) - The anti-Russian sanctions have been imposed to last for a long time, and Russia therefore needs to develop medium- and long-term import substitution measures, Russian President Vladimir Putin said."We all understand that, o...

MOSCOW. March 31 (Interfax) - Moscow's Babushkinsky District Court has sentenced five members of Jehovah's Witnesses, a religious organization designated extremist and banned in Russia, to real jail terms in the criminal case of activities of an e...

VILNIUS. March 31 (Interfax/BNS) - The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry has forwarded a note to Belarus to demand that the construction of the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) be halted until nuclear safety issues are addressed."Belarus prepares for th...

MOSCOW. March 31 (Interfax) - Ukrainian farmers have sown 207,000 hectares of spring grains and pulses this week, Ukrainian media reported with a reference to the Agrarian Policy Ministry.They had sown 210,300 ha the past week and 66,600 ha the week befor...

MOSCOW. March 31 (Interfax) - Alexander Korniyenko, first deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada, said he expects the NATO Parliamentary Assembly to pass a declaration in support of Ukraine's membership bid at its upcoming session in Luxembou...

MOSCOW. March 31 (Interfax) - Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works" (MMK) has withdrawn from its joint project with the Turkish component manufacturer Coskunoz - a metal service center for the automotive industry in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Y...

TBILISI. March 31 (Interfax) - Georgia has established an anti-corruption bureau in fulfillment of 12 recommendations given by the European Commission so that Georgia could receive EU candidate country status.As he spoke at the bureau presentation, Georgi...

CHISINAU. March 31 (Interfax) - Moldova's Energocom state enterprise purchased 24 MWh of gas for the first time on the Romanian Commodity Exchange, Energocom's press service said.The cost was 240 Romanian lei (about 48.82 euro) per 1 MWh. The gas ...

MOSCOW. March 31 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian government will require the country's athletes to boycott qualifying events for the 2024 Olympic Games if Russian and Belarusian athletes also compete in these tournaments.This decision was made in response ...

MOSCOW. March 31 (Interfax) - The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates has canceled the license of the local branch of MTS Bank , the regulator said in a statement on its website.The bank's operations will be terminated within six months under the...

MOSCOW. March 31 (Interfax) - The Russian Finance Ministry has, in accordance with the Russian presidential decree of June 22, transferred 17 billion rubles, or about $221.1 million, to the National Settlement Depository to pay the coupon yield and part o...

MOSCOW. March 27 (Interfax) - Norilsk Nickel has redirected a significant part of its exports to a hub in North Africa and is selling its products through the port of Tangier in Morocco, Ravil Nasybullov, director of Norilsk Nickel's logistics departm...

BAKU. March 27 (Interfax) - European Union member countries in 2022 imported 19.845 million tonnes of oil from Azerbaijan, and paid 15.165 billion euro for it, according to Eurostat agency materials shown to Interfax.In 2021, 19.974 million tonnes of oil ...

ROSTOV-ON-DON. March 27 (Interfax) - Larta Glass (the former Russian assets of the American Guardian Glass, bought out in 2022 by FSK Group President Vladimir Voronin) launched the production of oversized coated architectural glass at the Larta Glass Rost...

MINSK. March 27 (Interfax) - The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has described new U.S. sanctions affecting major Belarusian MAZ and BelAZ manufacturers as futile, saying that no threats will make Minsk turn from its intended course."Any attempt to isolat...

ALMATY. March 27 (Interfax) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is providing up to $150 million in tenge to participating financial institutions under the Kazakhstan Green Economy Financing Facility II for on-lending to individuals, pri...

MOSCOW. March 27 (Interfax) - Industrial output in Ukraine fell 36.9% in 2022 after growing 1.9% in 2021, Ukrainian media reported, quoting the State Statistics Committee.Output fell 44.1% year-on-year in December, 41.9% in November and 41.6% in October.T...

MOSCOW. March 27 (Interfax) - The Support to Ukraine's Reforms for Governance (SURGe) project, which is funded by the Canadian government, will provide expert support to the Ukrainian Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development...

MOSCOW. March 27 (Interfax) - A meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Russia-Belarus Union State to be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is due to take place on April 6, Russian Prime Minister...

MOSCOW. March 27 (Interfax) - Ukraine has successfully concluded the heating season, which was very challenging, earlier than planned thanks to favorable weather conditions, Naftogaz of Ukraine CEO Alexei Chernyshov said.The local authorities have already...

ASHGABAT. March 27 (Interfax) - Turkmenistan's cotton sowing campaign has begun, according to the country's media.This year there are plans to sow 580,000 hectares with cotton crops. The areas allocated for cotton cultivation remain at 2022 levels...

MOSCOW. March 24 (Interfax) - Ukraine has fulfilled 72% of all obligations envisaged by the European Union-Ukraine Association Agreement."Ukraine has already fulfilled 72% of all obligations under the agreement, which is an important element of Ukrain...

MOSCOW. March 24 (Interfax) - The dates of the eighth Eastern Economic Forum have been moved again.The forum will be held in Vladivostok on September 10-13, 2023, the press service for Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential Envoy to the Far East Y...

MOSCOW. March 24 (Interfax) - Up to 5 GW of generation capacities remained out of order in the Joint Energy System of Ukraine as of March 23, 2023, from October 2022, First Deputy Energy Minister Yury Vlasenko said at a round table dedicated to distribute...

YEKATERINBURG. March 24 (Interfax) - Uralkhimplast (UHP, Sverdlovsk Region) currently has a year's supply of imported raw materials and is working on securing alternative supplies from Asian producers, the company said in financial reporting.The plant...

BAKU. March 24 (Interfax) - The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) has started the transit of Kazakh oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, SOCAR Midstream Operations, a SOCAR subsidiary, said in a statement."The fir...

MOSCOW. March 24 (Interfax) - In pursuing a tax reform, Ukraine should strike a balance between competing objectives, namely mobilizing critical resources for the state budget and providing incentives for economic growth, World Bank Vice President for Eur...

KRASNODAR. March 23 (Interfax) - Traffic along the railroad section of the Crimean Bridge is expected to resume in early summer 2023, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin told the Rossiya 24 (VGTRK) television channel."As regards the Crimean...

MOSCOW. March 23 (Interfax) - The Russian government will promptly take measures to digitalize migration procedures as much as possible, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said."We will promptly take measures to digitalize procedures for obtaining citiz...

CHISINAU. March 23 (Interfax) - Moldova will continue efforts to settle the conflict in the Transdniestrian region peacefully, Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Oleg Serebrian told a Polish delegation of politicians and civil rights activists on Thu...

MOSCOW. March 23 (Interfax) - The Russian government is thinking of increasing grain purchases for intervention fund by 7 million tonnes to 10 million tonnes per year, but more financing will be needed, Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko said foll...

MOSCOW. March 23 (Interfax) - The expediency of pulling out of the World Trade Organization is not obvious: membership has its advantages even amid today's severe sanctions-related pressure, and does not get in Russia's way, Prime Minister Mikhail...