Europe

MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/: The work on creating the Pion-NKS satellite as an integral part of the Liana radio-electronic reconnaissance system is at its final stage, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday.

"The Defense Ministry continues its work on creating and maintaining the orbital grouping of military satellites. In December last year, we approved the schedule of completing the work on the Pion-NKS. The timeframe of its launch largely depends on enterprises that are the developers of space rocketry," the defense minister said at a conference call.

MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/: There are no plans to organize a meeting of the Russian, German, French and Turkish leaders, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, respectively, on March 6, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

"No, such a meeting is not planned," he said, adding that "such a meeting has not been agreed."

MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani offered Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold the next summit in the Astana format in the Islamic Republic, Iran’s Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali said on Tuesday at the meeting with Chairman of the Federation Council's Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev.

"Several days ago, Presidents Rouhani and Putin talked over the phone. During the phone conversation, President Rouhani invited President Putin suggesting that the next summit in the Astana format in the near future should be held in Iran," Jalali said.

MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/: Law enforcement agencies foiled 34 terrorist plots in Russia in 2019, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) Igor Kulyagin said on Tuesday.

"In 2019, thanks to preventive actions by law enforcement and security agencies 57 terrorism-related crimes were thwarted, including 34 terrorist attacks," Kulyagin said.

Last year, 32 gunmen, including nine chieftains, were eliminated in Russia during counter-terrorism operations, and 41 ringleaders, 241 militants and 606 terrorists’ accomplices were detained, he noted.

MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/: All protestors who take part in street rallies must obey the rules of public demonstrations, or else the situation may deteriorate into riots and violence in the streets, Russian President Vladimir Putin told TASS in an interview for the project entitled "20 Questions with Vladimir Putin".

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday appointed a new deputy prime minister to oversee the country’s petrochemical industry as a dispute with neighboring Russia over oil supply terms drags on.

Belarus and Russia have been locked in a row over oil supply and flows have slowed to a trickle since Jan. 1, while refineries in Belarus have been operating at 50% of capacity.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices extended gains on Tuesday on expectations that central banks are likely to enact financial stimulus to offset the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak and growing optimism that OPEC will order deeper output cuts this week.

Brent crude LCOc1 rose $1.40 per barrel, or 2.7%, to $53.30 per barrel by 0940 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) CLc1 rose $1.48 cents, or 3.2%, to $48.23 a barrel.

Both futures contracts rose by more than 3% earlier in the session.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin told reporters on Tuesday it would not say whether Moscow was ready to make additional oil output cuts as part of the cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC countries and said it was necessary to wait for their meeting later this week.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners known as OPEC+ will meet in Vienna on March 5-6 to discuss additional steps to support the oil market as the economic impact of the spread of the coronavirus risks hurting demand.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Tuesday rejected allegations by the United Nations that Russia may have committed war crimes in Syria last year, saying the U.N. investigators are in no position to know what is happening on the ground.

“We strongly reject these claims,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “It’s obvious that one committee can not have reliable information of what is happening on the ground.”

(Reuters) - UK’s Treasury Committee said on Monday it will question outgoing Bank of England Governor Mark Carney alongside members of the monetary policy committee on Tuesday.

The lawmakers will hold an evidence session with Andrew Bailey on Wednesday on his appointment as the new governor of the BOE, the committee said on Twitter bit.ly/3csIA9B.