Europe

KIEV, Dec 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russian and Ukrainian gas companies have reached a deal to ensure the flow of Russian natural gas through Ukraine to Europe for the next five years, the two sides said.

Ukraine is set to collect more than €6.25 billion in gas transit fees by 2024 under the new deal with Gazprom, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

MOSCOW, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Moscow favors normalizing relations with Washington, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said in his Christmas and New Year greetings to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Moscow supports establishing equal dialogue between the two countries based on mutual respect of interests, Putin told Trump in the message posted on the Kremlin website on Monday.

Putin noted that Russia and the United States are historically responsible for ensuring global security and stability.

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/: The Kremlin regards as productive Russian-US cooperation concerning information about preparations for terrorist attacks, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Monday.

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/: The parties to the Libyan conflict need to end military activities without preconditions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said following talks with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday.

"I believe that putting an end to military activities is a crucial condition for the launch of political dialogue. We believe that there is a need to end military activities without any preconditions," Lavrov pointed out.

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has wished his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad a happy New Year, the Kremlin press service said in a statement.

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/: The Normandy Quartet’s summit in Paris allowed for achieving shifts in settling the conflict in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary on the results of 2019.

"Shifts were achieved in settling the intra-Ukrainian conflict. After a three-year pause a Normandy Quartet summit was held in Paris in December," the Foreign Ministry stated. "Proceeding from humanitarian considerations Russia eased the procedure of granting citizenship to the population of some districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions."

ROSTOV-ON-DON, December 30. /TASS/: Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who is serving a 20-year sentence in the US, will receive a set of Russian newspapers and magazines as a New Year’s gift, his wife Viktoria told TASS.

"We would like him to receive the parcel before the holidays as he has been looking forward to reading Russian newspapers and magazines. He says when he gets them, he stays awake all night to read them through and re-reads everything ten times because he misses the Russian media," the pilot’s wife said.

30 Dec 2019; MEMO: The Senior Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, has rejected Israeli allegations that she is siding with the Palestinians with regard to the possible probe into alleged war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories, Al-Watan Voice reported on Sunday.

“The ICC works on the principle of personal responsibility for crimes,” explained Bensouda. “It does not deal with conflicts among states.”

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/: Two Russian nationals detained for plotting to carry out terrorist attacks in the city of St. Petersburg have pleaded guilty, a Federal Security Service (FSB) source told TASS.

"They have pleaded guilty," the source said, adding that evidence of plans to carry out terrorist attacks had been seized from the detained.

According to the FSB, a criminal case was opened under Article 205.5.2 of the Russian Criminal Code (participation in terror activity).

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/: Export supplies of MC-21 passenger jets to non-CIS countries, including Malaysia, may start in 2023, Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said on Monday on the air with the Rossiya-24 TV Channel.

"Commercial deliveries will start in 2021. We will start deliveries to Russian operators and CIS countries at first. Customers from non-CIS countries are in the portfolio of orders but [deliveries] will target 2023-2024. These are countries of Southeast Asia and Malaysia," Manturov said.