Europe

VIENNA, June 28. /TASS/: Russia hopes that the United States will display transparency in pulling out armaments after the Sea Breeze 2021 exercise in the Black Sea, the Russian delegation at Vienna talks on military security and arms control said on its Twitter on Monday.

"We hope that following the drills the United States will demonstrate transparency in pulling out modern armaments, ammunition and materiel from Ukraine to ensure that they do not fall into the hands of military and nationalist formations in Donbass," the statement reads.

MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/: There are no cases of the new lambda variant of COVID-19 infections in Russia, the Vektor Center, developer of the EpiVacCorona coronavirus vaccine, told reporters in a statement on Monday.

"We continue to study the qualities of this variant. It was classified as a variant of interest by the World Health Organization (WHO) on June 14. There have been no infections with this strain SARS-CoV-2," the statement reads.

MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/: Heavy rain that hit Moscow Monday left a number of streets and one metro station flooded. The strong wind fell several trees and billboards and damaged several storefronts, a source in the emergency services told TASS.

"It is known at this point that the downpour flooded several streets in Moscow’s east. The traffic is congested because of this. Besides, the Yasenevo metro station is flooded. There is no train service between Tyoply Stan and Novoyasenevo stations," the source said.

MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/: The Russian-Chinese relations are at their highest point, the ties between both states serve as an example of intergovernmental cooperation in the 21st century, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a videoconference with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Monday.

BELGRADE, Jun 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The Serbian Army completed yesterday, a joint tactical exercise “Lightning Strike 2021” at the Pester training ground, in the south-western part of the country, said the government in a press release.

According to the press release, this year’s military exercise was the biggest joint tactical exercise in the past several decades.

MOSCOW, June 28 (Reuters) - Turkey and Azerbaijan began joint military drills in Baku on Monday, deploying tanks, helicopters and drones in an effort to improve the two countries' combat interoperability, Azerbaijan's defence ministry said in a statement.

Ankara last year backed Azerbaijan's effort to drive ethnic Armenian forces out of swathes of territory they had controlled since the 1990s in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The two countries earlier this month agreed to increase cooperation in the military sphere.

BRUSSELS, June 28 (Reuters) - European Union countries on Monday gave the green light to reforms of the bloc's huge farming subsidy programme, after a three-year battle over rules to make it greener and support smaller farms.

Negotiators representing the EU's 27 countries and European Parliament struck the deal on Friday to reform the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which will spend 387 billion euros ($462 billion) on payments to farmers and rural development, roughly a third of the EU's 2021-2027 budget.

MOSCOW, June 28 (Reuters) - Former Belarusian presidential contender Viktor Babariko told a court on Monday he was innocent of what his team says were fabricated corruption charges designed to stop him challenging veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko at the ballot box.

Before his arrest last June, opinion polls suggested Babariko, 57, was Lukashenko's main rival ahead of a presidential election which the opposition says was rigged last August to prolong Lukashenko's long rule.

SOFIA, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Bulgaria has recorded its first day with zero COVID-19 deaths since Sept. 28 last year, keeping the country's total death toll at 18,027, official data from Bulgaria's COVID-19 information portal showed Monday.

Meanwhile, 16 more confirmed cases were reported in the country in the past day, the smallest daily jump in cases since June 8, 2020, raising the nationwide tally to 421,531, it showed.

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Stefan Lofven, Sweden’s Social Democratic prime minister since 2014, has asked the country’s parliament speaker to find a new government.

Lofven became the first Swedish leader ever to lose a confidence vote in parliament a week ago. He didn’t call for an early election as the Swedish Constitution allows him to. He is formally stepping down but will continue in a caretaker role until a new government can be formed.