Eastern Europe

MOSCOW. March 6 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has met with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Netherlands Wopke Hoekstra and Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu in Lvov, Ukrainian media outlets said citing the offi...

MOSCOW. March 6 (Interfax) - MTS Entertainment, a division of Russian mobile service provider Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) , is holding negotiations to acquire ticket sales platform TicketsCloud from its founder Yegor Yegerev, national daily Kommersant said, ...

MOSCOW. March 6 (Interfax) - The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced cooperating with three Ukrainian major agricultural holdings in order to develop their grain export and storage infrastructure, the total amount of i...

MOSCOW. March 6 (Interfax) - Rusagro group reduced net profit by 9.3% in Q4 2022 to 5.45 billion rubles, the company said in a statement.Adjusted EBITDA fell 44% to 9.6 billion rubles, while EBITDA margin changed to 9%.Revenue totaled 58.2 billion rubles,...

TALLINN. March 6 (Interfax) - The ruling Reform Party led by Prime Minister Kaja Kallas won parliamentary elections in Estonia by a landslide on Sunday.As many as 968 candidates from nine political parties and ten individual candidates fought for 101 parl...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - Ukraine has plans of tightening the physical security of power generation and supply infrastructure elements and will be actively implementing them this year while preparing for the next heating season, Prime Minister Denis Sh...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - The total public debt of Ukraine increased 4.55% in January 2023, Ukrainian media reported, citing data from the Finance Ministry.The total public debt in dollars increased by $5.06 billion to $116.44 billion, or by UAH 185.35...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - The 2022 revenues of Ukraine's state budget amounted to 1.33 trillion hryvni and expenditures to 2.64 trillion hryvni, including 1.3 trillion hryvni spent on security and defense, Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said."Abo...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - No reshuffles are planned in the Ukrainian government anytime soon, Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said."No reshuffles are planned in the government in the near future. By saying in the near future, I mean the next few weeks...

CHISINAU. March 3 (Interfax) - Moldova might join some of the European Union's sanctions on Russia soon, Moldovan Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Nicu Popescu said."Moldova will review the European Union's sanction list re...

KEMEROVO/KRASNOYARSK. March 3 (Interfax) - The creation of a cross-border railway corridor through Tashtagol, Kemerovo Region to Urumqi, China was discussed at the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum (KEF), the Russian region's government said."All regions...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - The presidents of Ukraine and Latvia signed a joint declaration in Lvov on Friday."We signed a joint declaration with Egils Levits, ratifying Latvia's support for full-fledged European and Euro-Atlantic integration of ...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - Cuba is working to introduce the Russian Mir payment system, which would ease travel to the country for tourists from Russia, a tourism advisor at the Cuban Embassy to Russia told Interfax on Friday."Cuba is working to lau...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - Ukraine has high expectations from a NATO summit due in Lithuania's Vilnius on July 11-12, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said."We are actively preparing for the Vilnius summit. We are expecting and doing every...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - Ukraine has started sowing summer crops, with agrarians in the Odessa region having sowed the first 3,500 hectares of farmland, including 1,500 hectares with barley and 2,000 hectares with peas, Ukrainian media reported citing...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - Ukraine has exported 32.5 million tonnes of grain since the start of the 2022-2023 marketing year on July 1, Ukrainian media reported, quoting the Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry website.Exports as of March 3 were 24.4% lowe...

NOVOSIBIRSK. March 3 (Interfax) - Russia's TVEL is fulfilling all its foreign lithium supply contracts, company president Natalia Nikipelova told journalists on Friday in Novosibirsk."Despite everything, we continue to deliver abroad, and this is ...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov and Tajik Tourism Development Committee Chairman Kamoliddin Muminzod signed an agreement on the promotion of tourist arrivals in Dushanbe on Friday."Russian Economic ...

CHISINAU. March 3 (Interfax) - Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Oleg Serebrian has dismissed reports on preparations for a military operation against the unrecognized Transdniestrian Moldovan Republic as "false".";The Moldovan a...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - Alexander Kamyshin, who earlier resigned as chairman of the national railway company Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ), has been appointed as a non-staff advisor to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.The relevant decree is available on t...

MINSK. March 3 (Interfax) - Over 10,000 Ukrainian citizens have entered Belarus since the start of this year and over 85,000 since February 24, 2022, the Belarusian State Border Committee said on Friday."Since the start of the year, 10,379 Ukrainian c...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - Russia has introduced a special procedure for transactions with securities, such as shares, bonds, Russian federal loan bonds (OFZ), and mutual funds, acquired after March 1, 2022, from persons of "unfriendly" states a...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - Russia's MMK Group plans to launch hot-rolling production at its Turkish asset MMK Metalurji by April 1, Viktor Rashnikov, chairman of the MMK board of directors, told reporters."As for the cold rolling section, we alr...

ASHGABAT. March 3 (Interfax) - Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen will visit Ashgabat shortly to open a permanent embassy to Turkmenistan, the Israel Hayom newspaper said on Friday.According to the newspaper, the Israeli embassy will open 20 kilometers aw...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - Ukraine plans to invite specialists from the United States to advise on the corporatization of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant operator Energoatom, Ukrainian media reported with reference to the Energy Ministry's social ...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - The Russian authorities and businesses have agreed on the concept of the windfall tax, a one-time tax payment from additional profits earned in 2021-2022 on the back of high prices, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.The rel...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian authorities are counting on Austria's assistance to restore infrastructure in Ukraine, Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said."Austria is one of the countries that helped Ukraine get through this winter. Durin...

KEMEROVO. March 3 (Interfax) - The creation of a cross-border railway corridor through Tashtagol, Kemerovo Region to Urumqi, China was discussed at the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum (KEF), the Russian region's government said."All regions [in Siberia...

KRASNOYARSK. March 3 (Interfax) - The authorities of Krasnoyarsk Territory and North Star LLC, a division of AEON Group, signed an agreement on the development of the Lemberovskoye anthracite deposit on the Taimyr Peninsula at the Krasnoyarsk Economic For...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - Ukrainian nuclear power plants (NPPs) will receive an opportunity to fully switch to fuel from the Westinghouse, a U.S. company, before the end of 2023, Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said."Our forecast is q...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - Russia has registered 14,516 new cases of Covid-19 and 40 related deaths over the past 24 hours, the coronavirus response headquarters said in a statement on Friday.Russia "has recorded 14,516 new cases of Covid-19 and 1,5...

MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - Ukrenergo has chosen the best points for connection of gas stations to the Ukrainian power grid, and 20-25 projects of the kind may be implemented, Ukrenergo Network Operation and Development Director Alexei Brekht said."W...

VLADIVOSTOK. March 1 (Interfax) - FESCO Transportation Group, whose parent company is PJSC Far East Shipping Company , has launched a new intermodal container service along the Vitebsk-Vladivostok-Shanghai route, the company said in a statement.The servic...

YEREVAN. March 1 (Interfax) - The Armenian parliament has ratified an agreement with Russia on cooperation in information security."The purpose of this agreement is to facilitate cooperation between the respective agencies of Armenia and Russia in the...

MOSCOW. March 1 (Interfax) - Ukraine's national oil and gas company Naftogaz had net losses of around UAH 40 billion or $1.1 billion at the current exchange rate according to preliminary data in 2022, Ukrainian media quoted Naftogaz CEO Alexei Chernys...

MINSK. March 2 (Interfax) - Belarus has fulfilled the conditions of China's CITIC Group and is inviting it to start building a mine and processing plant in the country, President Alexander Lukashenko said at a meeting with company chairman Zhu Hexin i...

MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian power grid operator Ukrenergo is focused on restoring the functioning of all the essential facilities to ensure reliable power supply without setting any consumption limits, Alexei Brekht, a member of Ukrenergo&#...

BAKU. March 2 (Interfax) - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is in negotiations with Russia and Ukraine to set up a safety and security zone around the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant and expects to achieve a result soon, IAEA Director General ...

BRUSSELS. March 2 (Interfax) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, addressing a meeting of the G20 foreign ministers on Thursday, called on the G20 countries to speak up in favor of extending the Black Sea Grain Initiative."It is imperative the G2...

KRASNOYARSK. March 2 (Interfax) - En+ Group has switched all of its charging stations to Russian software since the imposition of sanctions, the head of the group's energy business, Mikhail Khardikov said."We're not seeing any problems. Moreov...

MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - An International Monetary Fund mission will be working in Warsaw from March 8-15, discussing parameters for a potential future program with representatives from Ukraine, Ukrainian media reported, quoted a statement by Ukrainia...

MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - The European Commission has lifted its ban, imposed in December 2019, on the export of apple, plum and quince trees for planting from Ukraine to European Union countries.The reopening of the European market has become possible...

MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - Johannes Tholey has been appointed to replace Martin Schumacher as CEO of Metro in Russia, the retailer said.Tholey joined Metro in October 2022 in the position of deputy CEO. Before joining Metro, he headed Auchan in Russia, ...

MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - The Romanian government, in cooperation with the Moldovan authorities, will build a pontoon bridge across the Prut River on the border in order to facilitate the transportation of goods, mainly grain, from Ukraine, Ukrainian m...

MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - Europe has been using up gas stocks from underground storage facilities and tanks at LNG terminals actively this week. Temperatures in the region are high by day but well below freezing at night.UKRAINIAN TRANSITThe Gas Transp...

MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - Ingosstrakh has begun reviewing the terms of new and existing protection and indemnity (P&I) insurance policies for shipowners after the European Union imposed a tenth package of sanctions against Russia, the Russian insurer t...

MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - No electricity consumption limits have been introduced in Ukraine for Thursday, which means that hourly power outage schedules will be absent for the 19th consecutive day, Ukrainian media said, citing regional distribution sys...

BAKU. March 2 (Interfax) - Baku and Tashkent are preparing to implement projects worth $800 million, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said."You [Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev] have mentioned new projects. It appears to be just a meeting, but we...

MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - Russia has registered 14,096 new cases of Covid-19 and 39 related deaths over the past 24 hours, the coronavirus response headquarters said in a statement on Thursday.Russia "has recorded 14,096 new cases of Covid-19 and 1...

MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - The winter was difficult, but Ukraine was provided with electricity and heat, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said."I held a meeting on the energy sector today [on March 1]. It was attended by everyone who is respons...