Moscow

TAROM is launching today its Dragobete [Romania's love-celebrating holiday, marked on Feb. 24] offer by selling tickets with a starting price of 99 euros for round trips, with all charges included, according to an airline's release.

Photo credit: (c) Alex Tudor / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Presidents confirm participation in Minsk talks

MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to Minsk today for a meeting that will discuss a solution to the Ukrainian crisis, the Kremlin has confirmed.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will also travel to Belarus this Wednesday, as will German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias will hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday amid speculation that Athens might seek financing help outside the euro zone if negotiations with its European partners fail.

Greece's foreign ministry said Kotzias had been invited to Moscow by Lavrov.

Officially whatever is left from the 1960 Cyprus Republic, it is still "officially" a non-aligned country, even if there is no longer a functional Non-Aligned movement. It seems like a bad joke. On part of its territory there are two sovereign bases of NATO-member Britain.

BELGRADE - Gernot Erler, a member of the Bundestag and special representative of the German government for the country's OSCE chairmanship in 2016, said on Tuesday that it is impossible for Serbia to have a neutral mediatory role between the EU and Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wrapped up a visit aimed at boosting ties with Egypt on Feb. 10 with Cairo and Moscow agreeing to build the Arab country's first nuclear power plant.
      
Putin's two-day visit came with Moscow seeking to strengthen relations with the most populous Arab country at a time when Cairo's alliance with Washington has frayed.
      

German official: Serbia cannot remain neutral

BELGRADE -- German official Gernot Erler has said that Serbia's neutral intermediary role between Russia and the EU "is not possible."

Day of mourning for workers who died in Siberia

BELGRADE -- The Serbian government has declared Thursday, February 12, a day of mourning for six Serbian workers who died in a fire in Siberia, Russia.

CNN refers to Ukraine's army as "pro-U.S. troops"

MOSCOW -- "Social media is abuzz," RT is reporting, after CNN labeled Ukrainian Army forces fighting in the country's southeast as "pro-U.S. troops."

The American network scrolled a headline during a report dedicated to talks between Barack Obama and Angela Merkel that read, "Obama considers arming pro-U.S. troops."

Russian military stages drills in Crimea

MOSCOW -- The Russian army has started a military exercise in Crimea, with more than 600 soldiers participating, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti said on Tuesday.