Europe

TASS, September 4: Gazprom carries out preventive maintenance work on Nord Stream when it is due according to regulations because it cares about the safety of supplies, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday during the broadcast of the Rossiya-1 TV channel's ‘Moscow. Kremlin. Putin’ program.

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS: The Pentagon has plans to transfer programs of biological research from Ukraine to post-Soviet republics, Eastern European and Baltic states at the shortest possible time to move close to Russian borders, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces of the Russian Armed Forces, said on Saturday.

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/: All factors, "including the security factor," will be taken into account when deciding if Russian President Vladimir Putin is to participate in the G20 summit in Indonesia, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Pavel Zarubin for the ‘Moscow. Kremlin. Putin’ program, a fragment of which was published on Sunday on the journalist's Telegram channel.

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 48,042 over the past day to 19,729,423, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Sunday.

A day earlier, 51,699 daily cases were recorded.

As many as 2,239 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, down 41.8% from a day earlier. The number of hospitalized patients increased in eight regions, while in 74 regions the figure decreased. The situation remained unchanged in three regions. A day earlier, 3,849 people were rushed to hospitals.

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/: Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) mission, who remained working at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, plan to leave on September 6, but may extend their stay at the plant, Vladimir Rogov, a member of the main council of the military-civilian administration of the Zaporozhye Region, said on Sunday.

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/: Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his Mongolian counterpart Luvsannamsrayn Oyun-Erdene, as well as representatives of China and Myanmar will take part in the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum together with Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 7, the Kremlin press service reported on Sunday.

BRUSSELS, September 4. /TASS/: The European Union changed its ambassador to Moscow on a scheduled basis and German diplomat Markus Ederer, who has already left Moscow, will be succeeded by Roland Galharague of France, a diplomatic source in Brussels told TASS on Sunday.

"The rotation of the head of the EU delegation to Russia is carried out on a schedule basis. Markus Ederer has left Russia and this post will soon be taken by France’s former Ambassador to Malaysia Roland Galharague. His appointment was endorsed by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in June," the source said.

BERLIN, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Germany's government will use income from windfall taxes to lower end-consumer prices for gas, oil and coal, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday, announcing measures to mitigate the impact of rising energy prices on its population.

Scholz said the government plans to tie certain social benefits to the current or expected inflation rate in the future and will earmark 1.5 billion euros ($1.49 billion) for a discounted public transportation offer.

BRUSSELS, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The European Union condemned on Sunday the sentencing of Myanmar's deposed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi to jail with hard labour, after she was found guilty of electoral fraud.

A source familiar with the proceedings told Reuters on Friday that Suu Kyi had been found guilty and sentenced to three years in jail with hard labour. Her lawyers gave the same information to the BBC. 

CERNOBBIO, Italy, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Giorgia Meloni, set to lead a new Italian government with two parties once close to Moscow, warned on Sunday of the risk posed to Western nations by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, calling it the "tip of the iceberg" in a struggle for influence.

"If Ukraine falls and the West perishes, the big winner will not be (Vladimir) Putin's Russia, but Xi Jinping's China," Meloni, leader of the nationalist Brothers of Italy party, told a business conference.