Speaking after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko late Thursday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the two countries had reached a compromise deal on the thorny issue of gas supply.
Energy issues are expected to top the agenda at an EU-Russian summit in Stockholm on Wednesday as Europe seeks to avoid the interruptions in the supply of Russian natural gas that it saw last winter.
Energy issues are expected to top the agenda at an EU-Russian summit in Stockholm Wednesday, as Europe hopes to avoid a repetition of last winter's Russian natural gas flow stoppage.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has issued a fresh warning to Ukraine over its alleged siphoning of gas from pipelines bound for Europe. Last winter Moscow cut gas supplies to the continent for two weeks in a dispute with Kiev.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is fighting a desperate battle. His popularity at home has plummeted over his handling of gas disputes with Russia, and Moscow is ratcheting up the pressure ahead of a January presidential poll.
Though he favours closer ties with Russia, Viktor Yanukovich has in recent years sought to shake off his image as a servant of Moscow. He is currently well ahead in opinion polls for the January 17, 2010 vote.
In this edition: Brazil is at fever pitch. Following the 2014 Football World Cup, the country will now also host the 2016 Olympic Games. Thousands of Cariocas are celebrating Brazil’s nomination. And the net echoes this jubilation.
Eight people were killed and five injured in a suspected methane blast at a mine in Ukraine's Donetsk region, the RIA Novosti news agency has reported. 141 miners were said to be underground at the time of the blast.
In this special edition on Eastern Europe: the fight against corruption in Bulgaria; Ukraine's communist past; a garden with Stalinist statues in Lithuania; and a Bulgarian minister who is also a sculptor.
US Vice President Joe Biden said to Georgian lawmakers on Thursday that Washington would support Georgian accession to NATO, and that the US did not recognise the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent nations.
