Valentina Matvienko

A request for the use of Russian armed forces abroad by President Vladimir Putin in the Federation Council (upper house of parliament) has been approved. Such a request came a little earlier today, as previously announced by Senate President Valentina Matvienko.

According to her, the Council will consider the request in an open session.

Head of State Rumen Radev, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, National Assembly President Tsveta Karaiancheva and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva sent condolences to their Russian counterparts after a tragic accident with a passenger plane at Sheremetyevo Airport.
 

 The upper house of the Russian parliament voted on Friday to set March 18 as the date of next year's presidential election, reported Reuters.

The decision was approved by the Russian senators unanimously, speaker Valentina Matvienko said after the vote.

Serbia will remain a military-neutral state. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said today during a meeting in Belgrade with Russia's Speaker of Russia's Upper House of Parliament, Valentina Matvienko, according to TASS.

Pouring rain did not prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from taking part in a wreath-laying ceremony on the Day of Memory and Sorrow, which marks the beginning of the Great Patriotic War against the Nazis.
The wreath-laying took place on Thursday at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Alexander Garden outside the Kremlin in Moscow.