Foreign relations of Russia

"We're with EU on everything - except on Russia"

BELGRADE -- Ivica Dacic says that, when it comes to harmonizing the country's foreign policy with the EU, Serbia "supports everything except sanctions against Russia."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US State Secretary John Kerry laid wreaths and exchanged gifts during their meeting on Tuesday.

The meeting between the Russian and US delegations in Sochi lasted for four hours, TASS news agency reports.

UNESCO's Director-General and UN Secretary-General Irina Bokova and Ban Ki-moon will be travelling to Moscow to attend the Victory Parade on May 9, as announced by TASS news agency.

Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed a possible war between Moscow and Kiev and said that he did not harbour any ambitions of reviving the Russian empire.

These statement were made during the annual televised question and answer session, which was held on Thursday.

President Vladimir Putin said on April 16 Russia's economy could return to growth in less than two years, even though he considers it unlikely that the West will lift economic sanctions over the Ukraine crisis soon.

Latvia, current holder of the EU presidency, said on Friday it was surprised by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's criticism of European Union sanctions against Russia.

The Latvian prime minister's comments came after left-wing Tsipras met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, and lashed out against what he termed the EUs «vicious cycle of sanctions».

Russia as "gravest challenge to European security"

OSLO -- Defense ministers of Nordic countries have published a joint statement in a newspaper referring to Russia as "the gravest challenge to security of Europe."

The piece published in Aftenposten, Norway's highest circulation newspaper, was signed by defense ministers of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday afternoon Alexis Tsipras - or one of his aides - wrote that "the foundations for a substantive restart of Greek-Russian relations" was taken during a meeting in Moscow with Vladimir Putin.

He also repeated that Greece is a "sovereign country with the right to conduct a multi-dimensional foreign policy and to exploit its geopolitical role".

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met Kremlin strongman Vladimir Putin in Moscow April 8 with the EU nervous that cash-strapped Athens is trying to cosy up to Russia.         

All EU members "united on anti-Russia sanctions"

BRUSSELS -- All European Union member states, including Greece, have a united position on the issue of sanctions imposed on Russia, it has been said in Brussels.

This announcement was made by spokesman for the European Commission Margaritis Schinas.