Europe

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/: Russia understands that it will have to live with US sanctions for a long time as the US president cannot simply lift them, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.

"Many processes are codified, which means that the [US] president is bound hand and foot by the laws and acts passed by the Congress," he said in an interview with the Moscow.Kremlin.Putin program on the Rossiya-1 television channel.

BRUSSELS, December 26. /TASS/: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has come out with an initiative to call a Russia-NATO Council meeting on January 12, 2022 when a NATO Military Committee will meet in Brussels, the alliance’s press service told TASS on Sunday.

"The NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has decided to convene a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council on 12 January 2022 in his capacity as the Chair of the NATO-Russia Council. We are in contact with Russia as regards the meeting," the press service said.

MOSCOW, December 26. / TASS /: The allegations of insufficient gas supplies against Russia and the Gazprom energy corporation are unacceptable and groundless, European states create obstacles for themselves, Spokesman for the Russian gas giant Sergey Kupriyanov told the Rossiya-1 TV channel.

"All accusations against Russia and Gazprom relating to delivering insufficient amount of gas to the European market are absolutely groundless, unacceptable and untrue. To put it simply, it is a pack of lies," the Gazprom spokesman noted.

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/: Moscow is weighing time, format and delegates for a Russia-NATO Council meeting, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told TASS on Sunday.

"The time, modalities, format and makeup of the delegation are being considered," he said.

Moscow believes it’s essential that top military commanders take part in the NATO-Russia Council "because the matter is about military security issues," the diplomat said.

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/: Russia’s coronavirus death toll rose by 968 to 304,218 in the past 24 hours, the federal anti-coronavirus crisis center said on Sunday.

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/: Russia may choose various responses based on advice from military experts if US and NATO decline to provide security guarantees, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Rossiya 1 television on Sunday.

"It may vary," he said in an interview with the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin program. "It will depend on the proposals that our military experts will make to me."

The president said Russia will seek to achieve a positive outcome in the talks on security guarantees.

MOSCOW, Dec 26 (NNN-TASS) – Russian President, Vladimir Putin and Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, discussed the deliveries of Russian natural gas to Serbia, during a phone conversation yesterday.

The presidents noted that, the two sides have organised work, to ensure stable supplies of heat and energy to Serbian households and industries, the Kremlin said in a statement.

The promise of sufficient gas supplies was made amid a natural gas shortage and rising energy prices in Europe.

LONDON, Dec 26 (Reuters) - A man who entered the grounds of Windsor Castle, where Britain's Queen Elizabeth is spending Christmas, is being held under the Mental Health Act, London's police said on Sunday.

The 19-year-old from Southampton in southern England did not enter any buildings, and security processes were triggered within moments, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

MADRID, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Scientists declared the eruption on Spain's La Palma officially over on Saturday, allowing islanders to breathe a sigh of relief nearly 100 days after the Cumbre Vieja volcano began to spew out lava, rock and ash and upended the lives of thousands.

After bursting into action on Sept. 19, the volcano suddenly went quiet on Monday Dec. 13 but the authorities, wary of raising false hope, held off until Christmas Day to give the all-clear.

ZURICH, Dec 26 (Reuters) - People in Switzerland will be able to legally change gender by a visit to the civil registry office from Jan. 1, putting the country at the forefront of Europe's gender self-identification movement.

Switzerland joins Ireland, Belgium, Portugal and Norway as one of the few countries on the continent that allow a person to legally change gender without hormone therapy, medical diagnosis or further evaluation or bureaucratic steps.