Europe

MOSCOW, March 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russia on Thursday urged Afghan officials and the Taliban during talks in Moscow to reach an accord to end years of violence ahead of a deadline for US troops to withdraw from Afghanistan.

The conference in Moscow is part of intensifying negotiations between the Afghan government, the Taliban and the United States in Qatar to negotiate Washington’s exit nearly 20 years after US troops invaded the country in response to the Sep 11 attacks.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Friday that Moscow always hoped for the best but prepared for the worst when it was asked about the possibility of a new Cold War between the United States and Russia.

Diplomatic ties sank to a new low this week after U.S. President Joe Biden said he thought President Vladimir Putin was “a killer” in an interview that prompted Russia to recall its ambassador to the United States. Putin later offered Biden live online talks in the coming days.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Friday he would be in favour of signing a national supply deal with Russia for its Sputnik V vaccine for COVID-19.

“I can also well imagine that we conclude contracts - and conclude them quickly,” he told a weekly news conference, adding that Germany was in close contact with Russia on questions to do with the vaccine.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission has referred Britain to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing fully to recover illegal state aid of up to 100 million euros ($118.9 million)granted as tax exemptions in Gibraltar.

The Commission, which oversees competition policy in the 27-member EU, said on Friday the corporate tax exemptions covered passive interest and royalties between 2011 and 2013 and so took place before Britain exited the European Union.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States has appealed against a World Trade Organization recommendation that Washington revise a series of duties imposed on South Korea under then President Barack Obama, a WTO official said on Friday.

The appeal pushes the case into legal limbo along with some 18 others, several of them involving the United States, because the WTO lacks a functioning appellate body.

18 Mar 2021; MEMO: The European Union has frozen plans to blacklist more senior executives at Turkey's state-owned Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), four diplomats said, according to an exclusive report by Reuters. This is the clearest sign that a diplomatic offensive by Ankara this year is bearing fruit.

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/: Moscow calls on Washington and representatives of the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) to remain committed to the peace agreement signed by the parties in Doha last February, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday in his opening remarks at a meeting of the expanded "troika" on the Afghan peace process.

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow will rely on honest and decent Americans in relations with Washington.

Speaking about Russian-US relations at a meeting with representatives of the public of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol on Thursday, the Russian head of state drew attention to the difference in the views of the American people and the political establishment.

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/: The Black Lives Matter movement emerged because of a genocide that followed the entire US history, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the public of Crimea and Sevastopol.

"European’s settlement of the American continent was followed by elimination of the local population, with genocide as they call it today, direct genocide of the Indian tribes. It was followed by a very harsh, large, difficult period of slavery, very brutal," the head of state reminded.

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 cases rose by 9,803 in the past day, reaching 4,428,239, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Thursday.

In relative terms, the growth rate hit 0.22%. The lowest growth rates were recorded in the Tuva Republic (0.01%), the Sakhalin Region (0.05%), the Magadan Region and the Republic of Adygea (0.06%).