Politics of Russia

In his message dated December 21, Lavrov said that Moscow is ready for further close cooperation "on the Kosovo issue."

The Foreign Ministry announced in a press release late on Tuesday that Dacic was presented with Lavrov's New Year and Christmas (to be celebrated in Serbia and Russia on January 7) message during a meeting in Belgrade with Russian Ambassador Aleksandr Chepurin.

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley says an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council has been called over the escalating situation between Russia and Ukraine, reported the Time. 

Haley tweeted that a meeting has been called for 11 a.m. Monday.

A leading Russian polling agency says the electoral rating of President Vladimir Putin has dropped below 60 percent for the first time in five years.

Dodik, the leader of the Serb entity (RS) in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) was on Sunday elected as the new Serb representative in the tripartite Presidency of BiH.

Sputnik is reporting that the photo was taken at the UN HQ in New York City, during the UN General Assembly meetings this week.

"Russian and Serbian brothers and sisters," Zakharova captioned the photo of herself, Sergei Lavrov, and Ivica Dacic.

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Vladimir Putin's ruling party has lost three regional governorships as anger at reforms to Russia's pension system dented its popularity and loosened the Kremlin's iron grip on the ballot box.

AFP - Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 20 days in jail for organising an anti-Kremlin protest in a new court ruling Monday, the day he was freed after spending a month behind bars.

He is very close to the Russian president, so his visit could be some sort of precursor in case Putin decides to come to Belgrade himself this fall.

According to Sputnik, Zinichev will be met by Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, and will also visit the Serbian-Russian Humanitarian Center in Nis, where Russian experts train rescuers and firefighters from Serbia and the region.

The Ukrainian Embassy in Bulgaria condemned the illegal visit of several Bulgarian politicians and journalists to the occupied Crimea to attend a Week of Bulgarian Culture held on September 7-11.

This was stated in a statement by the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Bulgaria, published on its Facebook page.

RFE/RL - Thousands of anti-Kremlin demonstrators have taken to the streets in Russia to protest the government's plan to raise the retirement age in rallies coinciding with regional and local elections nationwide, triggering tense confrontations with police and resulting in hundreds of detentions, according to a rights-monitoring group.