Europe

MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu are spending the weekend in a Siberian region, where they are riding an off-road vehicle and are walking in the taiga, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Sunday.

"Vladimir Putin together with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu are spending the weekend in the Siberian Federal District," Peskov said, noting that soon the presidential press service would release videos and photos made during this trip.

MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/: Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov arrived on Sunday in the Russian capital, where he had been earlier invited for consultations, a TASS correspondent reported.

The plane with the diplomat onboard landed at Sheremetyevo Airport.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on March 17 that Antonov had been invited to Moscow for consultations on ways to mend Russia-US ties. The invitation came after US President Joe Biden’s harsh remarks about the Russian leadership in an interview with ABC News.

PARIS, March 21. /TASS/: France will be ready to use the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine if it receives the approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and its production meets the required quality standards, Secretary of State for European affairs in the French government Clement Beaune said in an interview with BFM TV channel on Saturday.

SOFIA, March 20. /TASS/: Bulgaria will have to declare Russian diplomats personae non gratae due to the spy case, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has said, the government’s press service reported on Saturday.

"Once again we have to declare Russian diplomats personae non gratae," PM said when commenting on the detention of six staffers of the Defense Ministry and military intelligence by the Prosecutor’s Office on Friday on the suspicion of spying for Russia.

MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/: Russia confirmed 9,299 new COVID-19 cases in the past day, bringing the total case tally to 4,456,869, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Sunday.

In relative terms, the growth rate reached 0.2%.

The lowest growth rates in the past day were recorded in the Magadan Region (0.04%) and the Sakhalin Region (0.05%).

MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/: Russia’s restoration as a single centralized state is a key milestone of the past two decades, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, calling Crimea’s reunification with Russia a historic event signaling that the state is strengthening.

"A major milestone is assembling, restoring Russia as a single centralized state," Putin said in an interview with Moscow. Kremlin. Putin program on Rossiya-1 TV channel.

LISBON, Mar 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Portuguese Prime Minister, Antonio Costa, yesterday, announced a seven-billion-euro (8.33-billion- U.S. dollar) investment, in forest preservation until the year 2030.

“It is an investment in fire-fighting and prevention equipment, but it is above all, an investment in the structural transformation of our forest, which means, avoiding monoculture (and) creating a landscape mosaic,” he said, in the city of Lousa, in central Portugal.

The forest should be considered as “a source of wealth” and something that has “added value,” he stressed.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s ambassador to the United States arrived in Moscow on Sunday for discussions on how to address sliding U.S.-Russia relations after U.S. President Joe Biden said he thought Vladimir Putin was a killer, the TASS news agency reported.

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday it was recalling its ambassador, Anatoly Antonov, for urgent talks after Biden said in an ABC interview he thought President Putin was a killer who would “pay a price” for alleged U.S. election meddling - an accusation that Moscow denies.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s ambassador to Britain has accused the UK government of breaking its international treaty commitments with a plan to increase the country’s nuclear arsenal and said the political relationship between Moscow and London is “nearly dead”.

In a foreign and defence policy review published on Tuesday and endorsed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Britain said it needed to increase its nuclear arsenal in the face of evolving global security threats.

LONDON (Reuters) - Northern Ireland is in a difficult situation as it deals with the consequences of Brexit, and Britain and the European Union need to reduce tensions and find solutions as equal partners, EU Commissioner Mairead McGuinness said on Sunday.

Political tensions have risen in Northern Ireland, with the pro-British unionist community unhappy about new barriers to trade with the rest of the United Kingdom that have arisen since Brexit fully took effect on Jan. 1.