Eastern Europe

MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian national power grid operator Ukrenergo has completed repairs following a major blackout in the city of Odessa and the surrounding area on Monday, the DTEK power supply company reported on Tuesday."This enables...

MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - The support provided by international partners has helped maintain Ukraine's energy system, Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said."This assistance is not only in the form of money but also in the form of al...

MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Gas prices in Europe are declining owing to growth in imports of liquefied natural gas, and the spot price in the region is $530 per thousand cubic meters, which is the lowest price since the beginning of November 2022.UKRAINIA...

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY. Feb 28 (Interfax) - The development of the natural gas motor fuel market in Kamchatka Territory is stalling because people do not know how the equipment works and are not prepared to convert automobiles to this fuel, but the regi...

MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Railways signed a contract with the Ukrnafta state company to buy natural gas, 8 million cubic meters of which will be delivered in March."Direct contracts with manufacturers are our vector of the development of r...

NEW YORK, UN. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Three bulkers carrying more than 144,000 tonnes of corn departed the Ukrainian ports on Monday, the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) said.The Seaguardian is carrying 64,877 tonnes of corn to the Netherlands, the Glorious S...

MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Germany is allocating 5 million euros in funding to support a project in Ukraine to repair schools, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Ukraine said."The UNDP-led project will support resilience building and gr...

MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Allied Blenders & Distillers (ABD), the producer of the world's third most popular whisky, The Officer's Choice, is entering the Russian market, national daily Kommersant said on Tuesday, citing Alcohol Siberian Group (...

MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - The Georgian government has permitted Ukrainian citizens to enter Georgia without a visa and stay in the country for up to two years.The government's decree to this effect is available for viewing on the website of the Jour...

CHISINAU. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Moldova's state-owned Energocom power company has extended the contract for supplying electricity from the Moldova GRES regional power plant in Transnistria for March 2023, Energocom's press service reported.According...

MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Ukrainian manufacturers need support amid shrinking demand and a lack of capital, and this problem should be discussed in a dialogue with the International Monetary Fund while developing a short-term economic policy, head of th...

MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - There is a possibility that Poland will close completely its border with Belarus, Polish Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wonsik said."Poland is prepared for various situations, and I wouldn't rule out a situation where ...

TBILISI. Feb 28 (Interfax) - The head of the European Union Delegation to Georgia Pawe Herczyski on Monday met the country's Justice Minister Rati Bregadze to deliver a formal EU demarche over the health condition of the imprisoned former president of...

MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - The United States will provide the third tranche of equipment in March to help restore power infrastructure in Ukraine, Ukrainian media said, citing remarks made by U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in an interview with V...

MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal believes that Ukraine is completing the development of its anti-corruption infrastructure and that tolerance for corruption in Ukrainian society has become zero."Ukraine is completing ...

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Ukraine has exported 31.78 million tonnes of grain since the start of the 2022-2023 agricultural year on July 1, Ukrainian media reported, quoting the Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry website.Exports for this agricultural year...

BRUSSELS. Feb 28 (Interfax) - The Council of the European Union on Monday decided to prolong for another year the restrictive measures linked to internal repression in Belarus, according to the council's communique published in Brussels.It cited Belar...

MOSCOW. Feb 22 (Interfax) - Cyprus-registered T.A.S. Overseas Investments Limited, part of the Ukrainian TAS group, which also includes the Dneprovagonmash plant, has received a 40.03% stake in the TransAnt GmbH joint venture set up by Austria's OBB R...

ASTANA. Feb 27 (Interfax) - An expert mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) started working in Kazakhstan on Monday to help prepare a report detailing the country's nuclear power infrastructure, the press service of the Kazakh Energ...

ST. PETERSBURG. Feb 22 (Interfax) - St. Petersburg-based Slotex JSC has launched production of furniture components at a former Ford factory site in Vsevolozhsk, Leningrad region, the same one where SV Rus, a subsidiary of South Korea's Sungwoo Hitech...

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - A sub-commission of the Russian government's commission on foreign investment has approved a deal for Yandex to buy Uber out of the MLU B.V. joint venture, a source close to the sub-commission told reporters."De facto, ...

YEREVAN. Feb 22 (Interfax) - Azerbaijan has assured Armenia of the readiness to begin dialogue with Stepanakert, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said."When we initiated a discussion of the peace treaty with Azerbaijan, we agreed on holding t...

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - American actor Steven Seagal has been awarded the Order of Friendship, under a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin and published on the official website of legal information.The award was conferred for Seagal's great ...

MOSCOW. Feb 22 (Interfax) - Russia's Federation Council on Wednesday voted for a bill that suspends Russia's participation in the New START treaty.The corresponding document was submitted to the State Duma in the evening of February 21 by Russian ...

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - The Moscow Exchange will commence trading in settled futures contracts for the Turkish lira/Russian ruble and Hong Kong dollar/Russian ruble currency pairs on March 1, a press release from the exchange said.Contract lots are eq...

MOSCOW. Feb 22 (Interfax) - The National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky have backed proposals by the National Bank of Ukraine to impose sectoral sanctions against all banks registered or located in Russia, in...

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky met with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in Kiev."I held a meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Prince Faisal bin Far...

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Apple Corp. has paid a 906 million ruble fine for restricting competition on the computer app market in its AppStore, which was levied in 2019 by the Federal Antimonopoly Service in response to a complaint from Kaspersky Lab, a...

MINSK. Feb 27 (Interfax) - The Belarusian Finance Ministry said on Friday that the Belarus-2026 and Belarus-2031 Eurobonds obligations had been fulfilled in Belarusian rubles."On February 24, 2023, the interest yield on the Belarus-2026 Eurobonds in t...

BAKU. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Marcel Ciolacu, president of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies, has said he discussed three major energy projects, including natural gas supplies to Moldova, at a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku on Monday.&...

MOSCOW. Feb 22 (Interfax) - Clarity concerning the amount of the contribution to be paid by large companies to the budget from profits received due to price trends in 2021-2022 could appear only a month from now, state secretary and Deputy Finance Ministe...

MOSCOW. Feb 22 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has called for the involvement of Italian businesses in the Ukraine reconstruction project."I see this as an important element. This is an important message for Ukrainians who believe i...

MOSCOW. Feb 22 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has noted the growing trade between Russia and China."Russian-Chinese relations are developing as we expected in the previous years. Everything has been progressing, developing. We are achie...

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Engineers have partially restored power supply to critical infrastructure in the city of Odessa and the surrounding area, Ukrainian media have reported with reference to the DTEK power company's social media post."As of...

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Former Rusagro Group executive Nikolay Zhirnov has become the head of Bunge CIS, a former Russian subsidiary of the U.S. company Bunge, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.Zhirnov was the head of Rusagro-C...

BISHKEK. Feb 22 (Interfax) - Kyrgyzstan's government has decided to liquidate the Great Nomads Heritage holding, which had been managing the Kumtor gold mine."By order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan, the procedure for temporary external...

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal believes that Kiev's intention to prepare for accession to the European Union within two years is an ambitious, but realistic goal."We did not start moving to the EU yesterday. Thi...

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Ukraine needs to find about $5 billion to fully close the deficit in the state budget financing in 2023 totaling $38 billion, the government expects the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to grant them, Ukrainian media outlets s...

YEREVAN. Feb 27 (Interfax) - The United States can play an important role in implementing the International Court of Justice's ruling, which compels Azerbaijan to ensure unhampered transit through the Lachin corridor connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Arm...

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Engineers tentatively plan to complete repairs on a high-voltage power transmission line, whose shutdown cut off power supply to nearly all parts of the city of Odessa and the surrounding area on Monday morning, within 24 hours...

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Russia has stopped supplying oil via pipeline to Poland, PKN Orlen Management Board President and CEO Daniel Obajtek announced on social media."We are effectively guaranteeing our crude oil supplies. Russia has stopped supp...

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Ukrainian IT companies attracted about $1 billion of venture investments in 2022, Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation for IT Development Alexander Bornyakov said in an interview with Ukrainian media outlets.Thos...

ASTANA. Feb 27 (Interfax) - KazTransOil has delivered Kazakh oil to the main pipeline system of PJSC Transneft for shipment to Germany, Shyngys Ilyasov, director of KazTransOil public relations and internal communications department, told Interfax."On...

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - The weather in Europe this week will be colder than in the previous two weeks. The temperature for the week February 27-March 5 is forecast to be about 3 degrees cooler than the average for the previous week and to drop below z...

ALMATY. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Kazakh National Company JSC QazaqGaz and Gazprom are discussing the establishment of a transit route that will pass through the territory of East Kazakhstan, Arman Kasenov, deputy chairman of the QazaqGaz executive board for ma...

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - The Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal has raised Can$52 million from 72,000 donors, the Ukrainian media reported, quoting the press service of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF).The appeal is a joint project of the CUF and the Ukrai...

MINSK. Feb 27 (Interfax) - The National Bank of Belarus (NBB) will lower its refinancing rate for the second time since the start of the year by 0.5 percentage points to 11% as of March 1."As of March 2023, the refinancing rate is decreasing from 11.5...

Almaty. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Gas processing at Kashagan will begin in 2025, JSC QazaqGaz CEO for Marketing Arman Kasenov said."Initially, the project was carried out by a private organization. In August, it was transferred to QazaqGaz. Much work had be...

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Uralsib Bank , which was hit by U.S. and UK sanctions last week, has suspended retail and corporate customers' transfers in nine currencies.Outgoing client payments in U.S. dollars, pounds sterling, Danish krone, Japanese y...

MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - The net outflow from Ukraine last week rose to 34,000 people from 14,000 a week earlier, Ukrainian media reported, citing information from the State Border Service on social media.According to the statistical data of the servic...