Europe

MOSCOW, December 13. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin told UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson about Kiev’s policy geared toward derailing the Minsk agreements, aggravating the situation in Donbass and discriminating against the Russian-speaking population, the Kremlin press service said on Monday after their telephone conversation.

MOSCOW, December 13. /TASS/: India may be the first foreign buyer of Russia’s most advanced S-500 ‘Prometei’ anti-aircraft missile system, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov told the RBC TV Channel on Monday.

"Beyond a doubt, once we deliver this system to our troops, India will be the first on the list, if it expresses its desire to buy these advanced armaments," the deputy PM said, replying to a question about whether India would be the first country to purchase the Russian-made S-500.

BRUSSELS, December 13. /TASS/: The EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels on Monday made a decision without a discussion to take sanctions against the private military company Wagner and Mali for undermining the process of democratic transition in that country, a diplomatic source in Brussels told TASS.

CHISINAU, December 13. /TASS/: Incumbent President of Transnistria Vadim Krasnoselsky has won the past presidential elections in the unrecognized republic securing 79.4% of the vote, Transnistria’s Central Election Commission (CEC) released the preliminary results on Monday.

"According to preliminary data, Vadim Krasnoselsky received 79.4% of the vote," the CEC reported. His opponent, lawmaker of the Grigoriopol district legislature, Sergey Pynzar secured 11.8%, another 8.8% of the ballots were declared invalid. The final turnout was 143,054 people (35.2%).

COPENHAGEN, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Former Danish immigration minister Inger Stojberg, known for her hardline stance in that role, was handed a 60-day prison sentence on Monday by an impeachment court for having illegally ordered the separation of under-age couples seeking asylum.

Stojberg was accused of knowingly breaking the law in 2016 by ordering the separation of all asylum-seeking refugee couples where at least one was under 18 years of age, a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

LIVERPOOL, England, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Russia faces massive consequences and severe costs if President Vladimir Putin attacks Ukraine, the Group of Seven warned in a statement on Sunday.

U.S. intelligence assesses that Russia could be planning a multi-front offensive on Ukraine as early as next year, involving up to 175,000 troops.

The Kremlin denies it plans to invade and says the West is gripped by Russophobia. Moscow says the expansion of NATO threatens Russia and has contravened assurances given to it as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

MOSCOW, Dec 12 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin has lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union three decades ago as the demise of what he called "historical Russia" and said the economic crisis that followed was so bad he was forced to moonlight as a taxi driver.

Putin's comments, released by state TV on Sunday, are likely to further fuel speculation about his foreign policy intentions among critics, who accuse him of planning to recreate the Soviet Union and of contemplating an attack on Ukraine, a notion the Kremlin has dismissed as fear-mongering.

STOCKHOLM/COPENHAGEN, Dec 13 (Reuters) - One of two Danish crew members missing from a capsized barge has been found dead in the hull after an overnight collision on Monday with a British cargo vessel in a busy Baltic Sea route off Sweden.

The 55-metre Karin Hoj barge and 90-metre Scot Carrier were sailing in the same direction off the island of Bornholm when they crashed in fog and darkness at 3.30 a.m. (0230 GMT), maritime agencies in Denmark and Sweden said.

OSLO, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Norway will further tighten restrictions in a bid to limit an expected surge of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told news agency NTB on Monday.

"The situation is serious. The spread of infection is too high and we have to take action to limit this development ... Omicron changes the rules," he said.

The prime minister's office scheduled a news conference for 1900 GMT on Monday where Stoere will be joined by Health Minister Ingvild Kjerkol and other government officials.

MOSCOW, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Russia said on Monday it may be forced to deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe in response to what it sees as NATO's plans to do the same.

The warning from Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov raised the risk of a new arms build-up on the continent, with East-West tensions at their worst since the Cold War ended three decades ago.