Russian State Duma

MOSCOW - Sergey Naryshkin, chairman of the Russian State Duma, stated on Monday that following the abandonment of the South Stream gas pipeline project, Russia will not leave Serbia in the lurch as regards to energy security.

Speaker visits Moscow, reiterates policy on sanctions

MOSCOW -- Russia is "very grateful to Serbia for not succumbing to pressure from Brussels and Washington" when it comes to imposing sanctions against Russia.

This is what Russian State Duma Chairman Sergei Naryshkin told Serbian Assembly President Maja Gojkovic in Moscow on Monday.

The Chairman of the Russian State Duma Sergey Naryshkin said that the West had treated Bulgaria as a colony in case of the South Stream pipeline, not respecting the country's economic interests.

BELGRADE - MP Vyacheslav Tetyokin of the Russian State Duma called for release of leader of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) Vojislav Seselj from his detention unit in The Hague, SRS released.

According to the release, at the initiative launched by communist MPs, Tetyokin sent a letter of encouragement to Seselj as one of the most famous political prisoners in Europe.

MOSCOW - The realisation of the South Stream gas pipeline project in Serbia and Bulgaria is developing according to the plans, Speaker of the Russian State Duma Sergei Naryshkin told the Russia-24 news channel.

Chairman of the Russian State Duma Sergey Naryshkin has assured that the construction of the Serbian and Bulgarian sections of the South Stream gas pipeline proceeds as scheduled.

Naryshkin, who was on a two-day visit to Belgrade in early May, said in an interview for Rossiya 24 TV that everything proceeded according to plan and the documents had been coordinated.

"Americans pressuring South Stream countries"

BELGRADE -- South Stream will be built, and as early as in 2016 Serbia will begin to receive substantial budget revenues from the pipeline, says Sergei Naryshkin.

BELGRADE - The dramatic situation in Ukraine underlines the deep crisis affecting entire Europe, and MPs in European countries must approach this issue in a responsible manner to prevent the catastrophe of the 1914 Great War from repeating, participants of a Russian-Serbian scientific conference have said.

“Serbia remains a loyal friend of Russia,” Ivica Dacic, Serbia's Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, told his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on the sidelines of a ministerial session of the Council of Europe held in Vienna on Tuesday.

Montenegro "blacklists" Russian Deputy PM Rogozin

PODGORICA -- The Montenegrin government said it "supported" the decision of the Council of Europe to introduce sanctions against 12 more Russian and Ukrainian citizens.

The are banned from entering EU countries and their assets have been frozen.