St Petersburg

BELGRADE - The Football Association of Serbia (FSS) is considering a Serbia vs Russia friendly in St Petersburg in March next year but the idea will materialise only if UEFA and FIFA give their permissions, sources close to the FSS have told Tanjug.

Day 552 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

Estonia announced that it is expelling 21 Russian diplomats and other employees of the Russian embassy in order to "achieve parity" in the number of diplomatic personnel, BTA reported.

"There is no justification for the current size of the Russian embassy," Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said in a statement.

“When Peter the Great laid the foundation of a new capital in St Petersburg, none of the European countries recognized this territory as Russian”

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Thursday night said Russian air traffic control had told him that a NATO fighter jet tracked an Air Serbia passenger plane within Russian airspace on Wednesday near the Latvian border.

Making it clear he accepted the Russian claim, Vucic said Serbia would seek additional information from Russia and from NATO.

Three consignments of valuable artworks bound for Russia were seized by Finnish customs last weekend, suspected of contravening EU sanctions, officials said on April 6.

The US State Department issued a warning on Monday evening for US citizens to leave or not to travel to the Moldovan breakaway region of Transnistria.

The State Department cited "unusual Russian troop movements around [neighbouring] Ukraine and the unresolved conflict between this breakaway region and the central government".

Kylian Mbappe missed the crucial kick as Switzerland beat France on penalties in the Euro 2020 last 16 after a classic European Championship game.

The Swiss had been seconds away from elimination during 90 minutes but go through to face Spain after penalty shoot-out.

Thousands of people around Russia have joined unauthorised rallies to protest against the detention of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

They are calling for Navalny, who has been on hunger strike for weeks, to receive proper medical care. More than 1,000 people were reportedly arrested.

A Russian ballerina from the world-renowned Mariinsky Theatre dressed in full costume performs scenes from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake… not on stage though, but on the frozen Gulf of Finland.

This is Ilmira Bagrautinova's way of objecting against the construction of a port in Batareinaya Bay, a popular beach about 100 km west of St Petersburg, Russia's second largest city.