Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation

The NATO alliance should increase its pressure on Russia over Ukraine, Turkey's parliament speaker has said, describing tension between NATO and Russia on the issue as a "fault line."

Bulgaria's opposition Ataka party will propose to Parliament to recognize the results of Crimea's referendum to join Russia, RIA Novosti has reported.

The Russian news service quoted Ataka leader Volen Siderov as saying on Friday the party "recognizes the referendum and Crimea as a part of the Russian Federation."

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.

In a speech held at the congress of Union for center-right Popular Movement Party (UMP) on Monday, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy stated that Crimea cannot be blamed for its decision to secede from Ukraine.

Ukrainian Ambassador to Sofia Mykola Baltazhy warned on Saturday that the conflict ravaging his country could spill to neighbouring states, including Bulgaria.

In his words the conflict was not a civil war, but rather a war between Ukraine and Russia, Baltazhy explained in an interview for private bTV station.

Russia's envoy to NATO Alexander Grushko called for a bilateral diplomatic discussion regarding the situation in Ukraine on Friday.

''NATO has increased the regime of air monitoring in the Baltic countries and performs flights in a close proximity to our strategic centers, including St. Petersburg,'' he said, as reported by TASS information agency.

Russia's proposal to pump gas to the Turkish-Greek border and from 2019 to cease using Ukraine as its main energy transit route to Europe is in breach of legally binding contracts and is economically flawed, the EU's energy chief said on late Feb. 4.

A workgroup in the Russian Duma will take the task of recalculating the reparations owed by Germany as a means of alleviating the consequences of World War II. The final result as stated will be presented to the German government.

The Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) decided on Wednesday to suspend its participation in the body until the end of the year.

The Russian boycott came after PACE passed a resolution earlier on Wednesday, which deprives Moscow of its voting rights until April 2015, the BBC reports.

Russia and the United States have engaged in a war of words over the tension in Ukraine, but U.S. President Barack Obama's remarks putting the fight against Islamists in the focus of his Syria policy have been welcomed by Moscow.