Tag: Russia

MOSCOW - Russia said on Monday it was open to dialogue with the Taliban in Afghanistan, Interfax reported, echoing the US position aimed at ensuring regional stability as Washington prepares to pull out its troops. Russia fears the withdrawal of 100,000 US troops, scheduled to begin in July, will leave a power vacuum in Afghanistan, allowing militants to filter into the oil and gas-producing countries of former Soviet Central Asia.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in

MOSCOW - By refusing to veto the UN resolution allowing military action against Libya and siding with the West, Russia has betrayed its interests and lost tens of billions of euros, Russia's ex-envoy in Tripoli said on Thursday. Vladimir Chamov was dramatically fired from the post of Russia's ambassador to Libya before the UN Security Council last week gave the green light to a military operation against Libya. His comments in an interview with the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper

BELGRADE - Russia is playing on Serbia's mistaken belief that it is still a key player in the power dynamic with the West to draw the country's focus away from joining the EU and NATO, US diplomats have concluded. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will emphasise the bonds linking the two Orthodox Christian nations during a visit to Serbia on Wednesday, the eve of the 12th anniversary of the NATO bombing over Belgrade's policy towards Kosovo.
US cables two years ago highlight

MOSCOW/BEIJING - Russia, China and India called for an end to "indiscriminate use of force" by foreign states taking part in military operations in Libya. A statement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the country opposed the use of force in international relations.
"China has noted the latest developments in Libya and expresses regret over the military attacks on Libya," the statement said. Russia also issued a similarly worded statement in which it called for a ceasefire as

MOSCOW - A US team may arrive in Russia next month to inspect the country's latest range of nuclear missiles under a new disarmament treaty signed by the two sides this year, the foreign ministry said on Thursday. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov exchanged documents formally bringing the new START treaty into force in Munich on February 5. Besides slashing existing nuclear warhead and missile ceilings, the treaty allows the two sides to inspect

BISHKEK - Russia and the United States will build separate training centres in southern Kyrgyzstan to counter the threat to regional security from Islamist militants, Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva said on Tuesday.
Kyrgyzstan, the only country where both Russia and the United States have military airbases, borders China and lies on a drug trafficking route out of Afghanistan. The predominantly Muslim nation of 5.4 million is split culturally and ethnically.
It remains

MOSCOW - President Dmitry Medvedev banned Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his family from Russia and from carrying out financial transactions in the country, the Kremlin said on Monday. The Kremlin chief added Gaddafi and his family to a list of banned people from Russia in a decree signed on March 10. Russia has strictly opposed military invention in Libya, and has warned world powers against meddling in the affairs of the north African country.
The Kremlin has not ruled out

MOSCOW - The Chechen Islamist rebel leader who is Russia's most wanted man has issued an appeal for recruits for a "total war" against the Russian state, in a new video message posted on Thursday. "A total war is in progress, fight the enemy where ever you can," Doku Umarov said standing alongside two other militants in a snow-covered forest in a video posted on militant website hunafa.com.
As well as repeating calls for women to join the rebellion, Umarov called on Russian

MOSCOW - The Russian central bank, on Friday, said it was raising its main refinancing rate 0.25 basis points to eight percent, its first hike in interest rates since the economic crisis over two years ago. The Bank of Russia said in a statement that the rate hike, effective from Monday, was needed due to expectations of higher inflation in Russia and high global oil prices.
"The decision was taken due to continued high inflation expectations," it said in a statement. The rate

MOSCOW - Russia announced on Saturday that it intended to fulfil its contract to supply Syria with cruise missiles despite the turmoil shaking the Arab world and Israel's furious condemnation of the deal.
"The contract is in the implementation stage," news agencies quoted Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov as saying. Russia initially agreed to send a large shipment of anti-ship Yakhont cruise missiles to Syria in 2007 under the terms of a controversial deal that was only

MOSCOW - Russia risks losing up to $10 billion (7.4 billion euros) in arms sales from the wave of unrest currently sweeping north Africa and the Middle East, a weapons industry official said on Tuesday. The figure is equivalent to Russia's total arms sales for 2010 and would represent a massive setback to the country's efforts to maintain its Soviet-era clients in the Middle East.
The unnamed arms export official told the Interfax news agency that Russia was carefully monitoring

KARACHI - Pakistan has great investment potential and Russia wants to cooperate with Pakistan in several promising fields. Russia apparently sees great possibilities in the case of small dams, irrigation, and agricultural projects. Moreover, telecommunications and Direct to Home (DTH) technology would be another important avenue for cooperation as Russia wishes to provide Pakistani citizens with sophisticated means of communication.
Recently, General Satellite, a Russian

KARACHI - Following the appeal of international donors and aid agencies for the flood-affected people of Pakistan, Russia has also launched an initiative to assist them. Talking to the media at the Russian Consulate in Karachi on Thursday, Russian Consul General Andrey Demidov said that Russia has so far provided humanitarian aid of about $9 million to flood survivors of Pakistan and, if needed, it would continue its support in the future.
"In accordance with the ordinance of the

MOSCOW - The war of words between Russia and Japan escalated on Monday when Moscow called Tokyo's latest comments on a disputed island chain "clearly undiplomatic". Prime Minister Naoto Kan used a national remembrance day Monday to call President Dmitry Medvedev's November visit to the Kuril Islands -- which are known as the Northern Territories in Japan -- an "unforgivable outrage."
Russia's response was swift, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov calling the comments hostile and

MOSCOW - Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova re-launched Russia's Fed Cup bid when she beat Alize Cornet 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 here on Sunday to leave France leading 2-1 in the World Group first round tie. Virginie Razzano, ranked 83 in the world, gave France a 2-0 lead on Saturday by downing home favourite and world number 13 Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-4.
Razzano is now up against Svetlana Kuznetsova, ranked 23 in the world but who succumbed to Cornet in the opening rubber on Saturday. In the final

MUNICH - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched a landmark nuclear arms reduction pact with Russia on Saturday, a showpiece of Washington's "reset" of ties with its former Cold War enemy. The new START nuclear arms reduction treaty officially came into force when Clinton and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov exchanged ratification documents at a security conference in Munich.
"Today we exchange the instruments of ratification for a treaty that lessens the nuclear danger

MOSCOW - Russia said on Saturday that this week's horrific attack on a Moscow airport was staged by a suicide bomber from the North Caucasus who tried to kill as many foreigners as he could.
But officials stressed that they could not reveal the 20-year-old man's name or the republic he came from because they were still on the hunt for the perpetrators of the horrific attack.
"We have established the identity of the terrorist suicide bomber who set off the explosive," the