Europe

MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/: European countries have destabilized the global LNG market and lowered global energy security, the Russian gas holding Gazprom said on Tuesday.

NOVO-OGAREVO, November 22. /TASS/: The importance of the Northern Sea Route will increase manifold and the development of northern regions will support Russia's future to a significant degree, President Vladimir Putin said at a flag raising ceremony on board the Ural icebreaker and the Yakutia icebreaker launch.

SOCHI (Russia), Nov 22 (NNN-KBC) — The 12th edition of the Atomexpo international forum, a major event in the global nuclear industry, opened Monday at the Park of Science and Art Sirius in the city of Sochi, Russia.

The forum which is an exhibition and business platform for discussing the current state of the nuclear industry, was finally held three and half years after the previous edition in 2019.  The break had been occasioned by disruptions caused by the Covid-19 outbreak.

KYIV/BUDAPEST, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Ukraine will summon the Hungarian ambassador to protest that Prime Minister Viktor Orban went to a football match wearing a scarf depicting some Ukrainian territory as part of Hungary, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Ukrainian media showed images of Orban meeting a Hungarian footballer wearing a scarf which the outlet Ukrainska Pravda said depicted a map of "Greater Hungary" including territory that is now part of the neighbouring states of Austria, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia and Ukraine.

ST PETERSBURG, Russia, Nov 22 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday touted Russia's Arctic power at a flag-raising ceremony and dock launch for two nuclear-powered icebreakers that will ensure year-round navigation in the Western Arctic.

Presiding via video link from the Kremlin at the launch ceremony in the former imperial capital of St Petersburg in northern Russia, Putin said such icebreakers were of strategic importance for the country.

WARSAW, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The Polish president spoke to a hoax caller pretending to be France's Emmanuel Macron on the night that a missile hit a village near the Ukrainian border, his office said on Tuesday, an admission likely to raise questions about its operations.

In a 7-1/2 minute recording of the call posted on the internet by Russian comedians Vovan and Lexus, Polish President Andrzej Duda can be heard speaking in English to the caller, who attempts to put on a French accent.

BERLIN (AP) — Consumers and businesses in Germany will receive subsidies to soften the blow of higher natural gas and electricity prices starting in January, two months earlier than originally planned, officials said Tuesday.

The move is part of a larger pot of almost 300 billion euros (dollars) in subsidies that the German government is cooking up to address the energy crisis resulting from Russia’s war in Ukraine.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Rolling blackouts across Ukraine may continue through March, according to one of the country’s energy chiefs, as Ukrainians brace for a grim winter after weeks of relentless Russian strikes against its power grid.

Sergey Kovalenko, CEO of private energy provider DTEK Yasno, said in a Facebook post late Monday that the company was under instructions from Ukraine’s state grid operator to resume emergency blackouts in the areas it covers, including the capital Kyiv and the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region.

21 Nov 2022; MEMO: The European Commission set out a 20-point action plan on Monday designed to address surging migration in the central Mediterranean, ahead of an emergency meeting of interior ministers, Reuters reports.

Over 90,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in the European Union this year via the central Mediterranean route, such as across the sea from North Africa to Italy or Malta, a 50 per cent increase from 2021. Interior ministers will hold talks on Friday.

MOSCOW, November 21. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing to take part in a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council to be held in Bishkek on December 9. The format of his participation will be announced later, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.