Exonumia

President Vladimir Putin acknowledged on Jan. 11 in an interview with German daily Bild that Western economic sanctions over the Ukraine crisis are affecting Russia.

"Concerning our possibilities on the international financial markets, the sanctions are severely harming Russia," he said in a long interview, calling the EU sanctions "a theatre of the absurd".

Many foreign leaders on Thursday sent New Year and Christmas greetings to Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, Tanjug is reporting.

They include Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Barack Obama, and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project - a network of investigative centres, media outlets and journalists - has handed Montenegro's leader a far-from-flattering New Year's award.

Its annual poll saw the long-standing Montenegrin strongman narrowly beat the wife and children of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev for the "award" of "Person of the Year in Organized Crime".

Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu has said the Turkish government "does not take seriously" Vladimir Putin's recent harsh statements, so he will not respond to the Russian president's "undiplomatic and insulting" remarks in the same manner. 

The Russian resident is holding his 11th annual news conference with a special focus on international events. Similar Q&A sessions in the past have lasted up to several hours. The record was set in 2008, when Vladimir Putin spent 4 hours and 40 minutes speaking with journalists.

Tomislav Nikolic today received Russia's ambassador to Serbia and said he was pleased that the two countries preserved their relations "despite temptations."

Ambassador Aleksandr Chepurin presented to the Serbian president New Year and Christmas greetings from his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

The “official wine of the Kremlin” is from Mount Athos, commonly referred to as the Holy Mountain, an autonomous monastic state. Its wine is called Kormilitsa, meaning nurse in Russian, and it is served by the Kremlin in high-level meetings with foreign dignitaries.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be on the cover of Time Magazine as TIME's 2015 Person of the Year.

Second place went to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State group. The Republican candidate for President of the United States in the 2016  elections, Donald Trump, is third.

The US magazine” Time” chose German Chancellor Angela Merkel to be the Person of the Year 2015 for her role on maintaining the stability in Europe during one of the most difficult periods.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he hopes nuclear weapons will not be needed after Russia launched cruise missiles from its submarine at ISIS targets in Syria.