Europe

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Tuesday it had expanded its list of European Union officials barred from the country in response to what it described as “unacceptable” sanctions against Moscow over the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

Russia’s foreign ministry did not name the officials, but called in senior diplomats from the German, Swedish and French embassies to notify them of the move following EU sanctions imposed in mid-October, the TASS news agency reported.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the new round of U.S. sanctions against Russia marked another hostile act by the outgoing administration of President Donald Trump and would further harm already poor ties between Moscow and Washington.

The Trump administration on Monday published a list of Chinese and Russian companies with alleged military ties that restrict them from buying a wide range of U.S. goods and technology.

GENEVA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Despite a number of mutations so far of SARS-CoV-2 virus, the culprit behind the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, none of them, including the latest UK variant, has made a significant impact on the susceptibility of the virus to any of the currently used therapeutics, drugs or the vaccines under development, experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

LONDON, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday that Britain and France are working to unblock the cross-channel trade "as fast as possible."

Johnson made the statement when he was speaking at a virtual press conference at Downing Street after the French government banned trucks entering from Britain over concerns about the highly transmissible new coronavirus strain.

Johnson said he had just had "a very good call" with French President Emmanuel Macron to solve the issue.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Monday released a recording of a phone call he said he made to an alleged state security operative, who revealed some details of how the politician was supposedly poisoned and media identified as a member of a team that has reportedly trailed Navalny for years.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Monday gave official approval for the coronavirus vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer to be used across the 27-nation bloc, raising hopes that countries can begin administering the first shots to their citizens shortly after Christmas.

The EU’s executive commission gave the green light just hours after the European Medicines Agency said the vaccine meets safety and quality standards. Brussels had been expected to take two or three days to endorse the market authorization move.

GENEVA, December 21. /TASS/: The World Health Organization (WHO) has called on states to take all possible measures to slow and then stop the spread of new, mutated types of the novel coronavirus detected in the UK and South Africa, WHO Spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic informed TASS on Monday.

"Viruses change as they circulate, and these changes can lead to changes in characteristics of the virus. Everyone must continue to take all actions to slow and eventually stop the spread of the virus," he said.

MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/: Russian presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov agreed with the opinion of Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska and called sanctions against Nord Stream 2 one of the elements of hybrid warfare.

"In general, we can agree with him [Deripaska]. This is indeed a variant of hybrid warfare, it is used as a hybrid war by the United States," Peskov said. "Let's take the sanctions against Nord Stream - it is a pure hybrid war that goes on like a war accompanied by unfair competition," he added.

MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/: The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) may negotiate the creation of a free trade zone with India in the first half of 2021, Deputy Director of the EEC (Eurasian Economic Commission) Trade Policy Department Mikhail Cherekaev said on Monday.

"The decision to begin the negotiations was taken back in 2016. However, we have not started a substantive discussion of the content of the agreement with the Indian side thus far. We plan to hold a round of talks in the first half of next year," he said.

SOFIA, December 21. /TASS/: The military, air and naval attache to the Russian embassy in Bulgaria has left the country after he was declared persona non grata on Friday due to accusations of espionage, the Russian diplomatic mission in Sofia told TASS.

"The Russian diplomat has left Bulgarian territory through the border with Turkey on Monday at around midday," TASS was told.