Section: Cyprus Mail (Cyprus)
Russia-Ukraine row over Crimea escalates as Moscow cuts coal to Kiev
By Natalia Zinets Russia has begun to restrict coal supplies to Ukraine, Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn told parliament on Friday, days after the Kremlin threatened to punish Kiev for a power blackout of Russian-annexed Crimea. Demchyshyn said pro-Russian separatists who control coal mines in eastern Ukraine had also halted coal supplies....
Ten EU nations say Nord Stream gas extension not in EU interests
Russia’s plans to extend its gas link to Germany run counter to EU interests and risk further destabilising Ukraine, 10 European governments said in a letter to the European Commission that called for a summit-level debate on the issue. A group of European companies signed an agreement with Gazprom in September to expand its Nord Stream...
Russia seeks economic revenge against Turkey over jet downing
By Humeyra Pamuk and Vladimir Soldatkin Russia threatened economic retaliation against Turkey on Thursday and said it was still awaiting a reasonable explanation for the shooting down of its warplane, but Turkey dismissed the threats as “emotional” and “unfitting”. In an escalating war of words, President Tayyip Erdogan responded to Russian...
Russia prepares reprisals against Ukraine over Crimea blackout
By Andrew Osborn and Pavel Polityuk Russia said on Tuesday it would cut off gas supplies to Ukraine and threatened to halt coal deliveries, ratcheting up a dispute over a power blackout in Crimea at a time when a ceasefire between Kiev and separatist rebels is fraying. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak accused the Ukrainian authorities of...
Russia serious about solution in Syria, German minister says
By Noah Barkin Russia feels increasingly under threat from developments in the Middle East and appears to be serious about cooperating with western countries to resolve the war in Syria, Germany’s foreign minister said on Sunday. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose Social Democrats (SPD) are traditionally more friendly towards Moscow than...
State of emergency declared in Crimea after electricity pylons “blown up”
A state of emergency has been declared in Crimea after pylons carrying electricity from Ukraine were blown up cutting off power to almost two million people, media and the Russian government said on Sunday. The Russian Energy Ministry didn’t say what had caused the outages, but Russian media reported that two pylons in the Kherson region of...
Suspected mastermind of Paris attacks killed in raid, says France (Update 2)
By John Irish and Gregory Blachier The suspected Islamic State mastermind of the Paris attacks was among those killed in a police raid north of the capital, France confirmed on Thursday, bringing an end to the hunt for Europe’s most wanted man. Authorities said they had identified the corpse of Belgian national Abdelhamid Abaaoud from...
UN denies Secretary-General Ban will visit North Korea next week
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will not visit North Korea next week, a UN spokesman said in a statement on Wednesday after China’s Xinhua news agency reported that he will visit the North on Monday and stay for about four days. The statement released by the spokesman’s office said Ban will be in New York and then travel...
G20-Obama, Putin agree on need for political transition, ceasefire in Syria (Update)
By Matt Spetalnick and Lidia Kelly U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on the need for a Syria-led political transition, including U.N.-mediated talks, when they spoke at the G20 summit on Sunday, a White House official said. The Cold War superpower foes have been at odds over the future of Syrian President...
Russia faced some dissent over Syria mission, lawyer and activist say
By Maria Tsvetkova and Jason Bush In a rare act of insubordination, a small group of Russian soldiers filed a complaint with military prosecutors against plans to deploy them to Syria, a lawyer and a human rights activist who handled their case said. The dissent, in an air defence unit, was short-lived but points to growing strains on the...
