Europe

MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/: Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project requires comprehensive support, not merely political but from construction contractors as well, CEO of Austria’s OMV Rainer Seele (one of European partners of the project) said at the press conference on Tuesday.

Nord Stream 2 construction participants are communicating with politicians on a going basis, explaining advantages of the project implementation to them, the top manager said.

KERCH, June 30. /TASS/: Russia is considering Turkey’s proposal to resume flights between the countries starting July 15, Russian Transport Minister Yevgeny Dietrich told reporters on Tuesday.

"We are considering that," he said when asked about Russia’s position on the proposal made by Turkey.

MOSCOW/MINSK/TVER, June 30. /TASS/: The presidents of Russia and Belarus, Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, will attend the ceremony to unveil a monument to Soviet soldiers in the central Russian city of Rzhev.

It will be the Russian leader’s first trip outside the Moscow Region since the start of the pandemic. Putin’s previous domestic visit took place on March 18-19, when he visited Crimea.

According to the Kremlin press service, Putin and Lukashenko will take part in the unveiling ceremony of the Rzhev monument dedicated to Soviet soldiers.

BRUSSELS, June 30. /TASS/: The EU will begin to open borders with 14 states starting July 1, with Russia and the US not making the list, the EU Council informed in a statement published on Tuesday. The document notes that China may be the fifteenth state if it is willing to open its borders to EU residents.

30 June 2020; MEMO: A rare 15th century Quran from Iran written on Chinese paper has sold at an auction in London by Christie’s for $8.6 million (£7,016,250) almost 12 times more than its estimated value.

30 June 2020; MEMO: The Belgian Chamber of Representatives will today be voting on whether to “formally recognise the State of Palestine.”

30 June 2020; MEMO: A new request has been submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate senior officials from the United States and Israel over alleged war crimes committed in Palestine. They include Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mike Pompeo and Jared Kushner.

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday Britain could not continue to be “prisoners of this crisis” as he outlined plans to boost Britain’s economy, devastated by the coronavirus lockdown.

He said while people were rightly still nervous about further outbreaks of the virus, the government had to spell out the way ahead.

“We cannot continue, simply, to be prisoners of this crisis,” he said in a speech in central England.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s foreign ministry accused the United States on Tuesday of taking a “destructive” stance over the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and of preparing for a possible resumption of nuclear testing.

Moscow, which ratified the CTBT 20 years ago on Tuesday, said the non-proliferation and arms control regime was facing serious challenges and urged Washington to reconsider its position. It said the situation around the CTBT was “seriously deteriorating”.

MOSCOW, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said Tuesday it had detained a Russian citizen on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack in the country's North Caucasus.

The detainee, born in 1990, is suspected of preparing to detonate a makeshift explosive device near an administrative building in Vladikavkaz, the capital city of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, an FSB statement said.

The suspect planned to go to the Middle East to join the terrorist organization Islamic State after the attack, it said.