EC

IMF Chief Christine Lagarde and Greek PM Alexis Tsipras held a telephone conference on Monday in the late afternoon, Athens time.

According to an IMF spokesman in Washington, the two discussed the course of negotiations between Tsipras’ cash-strapped government and the “Institutions” – EC, ECB and the IMF.

The spokesman cited “priorities” that must be promoted.

It had been a while since Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis last blogged, but he came back with a vengeance in Thursday's on the eve of the Eurogroup meeting. His entrance disappointed journalists expecting one of his usual "titillating" comments, but his lengthy blog post describes exactly how he feels about the negotiations between Greece and its international creditors so far.

Nikolic and Dodik to attend Victory Day parade in Moscow

MOSCOW -- Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic and RS President Milorad Dodik will attend Victory Day parade in Moscow on May 9.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced this on Tuesday.

Leaders of 26 countries have confirmed their participation in the Victory Day celebrations in Moscow, Sputnik reported.

The negotiations between the Greek side and the country's creditors that begun yesterday in Brussels were once again interrupted by the sudden departure of Greek finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis.

European Central Bank head Mario Draghi stepped up the pressure on Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis during yesterday's Eurogroup meeting to accept the return of the Institutions (ECB, IMF and the EC) to Greece, according to a Bloomberg report citing unnamed European officials.

Representatives of the “institutions” — the way the new leftist government wants to refer to EC, ECB and IMF officials — will carry out inspections in Athens as well, Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem emphasized after a Eurogroup meeting in Brussels on Monday.

The leftist Greek government will reportedly table another three proposals, dubbed reforms, to the "institutions" at Monday's Eurogroup, including a "lottery" for collected receipts.

Another proposal is for the closing of businesses' and self-employed individuals' tax files without the levying of fines, a prospect aimed at discovered previous undisclosed income.

The euro area's sources in Brussels said a list of reforms sent by Finance Minister Yannis Varoufakis has neither been approved nor disapproved, contrary to media reports in Greece, which claimed that the list was rejected.

In an article entitled "Final showdown approaches for EU and Greece," Peter Spiegel, the correspondent for the Financial Times in Brussels, presents three possible scenarios with regard to the negotiations between Greece and its creditors, in view of the critical Eurogroup meeting on Monday.

Prime Minister Victor Ponta announced on Monday that the Government did not reach an agreement with the international financial partners about the increase in the price of natural gas and the restructuring of the Hunedoara and Oltenia energy complexes, for which reason a letter of intent will not be signed yet, adding that the rest of the objectives are fulfilled.