Republics

Caretaker Culture Minister Martin Ivanov said on Sunday that Bulgaria's authorities abdicated culture decades ago.

In an interview with private TV channel NOVA he called for a "campaign" that should more actively promote Bulgarian culture.

He made clear that problems in Bulgaria's cultural sector could not be solved in the two-month term of the interim government.

MOSCOW - Russian food safety authority Rosselkhoznadzor announced Saturday that it allowed the import of dairy products from Serbia to countries of the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia.

BELGRADE - Serbian Foreign Minister and First Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said that no pressure was put on him in Germany and that Berlin is primarily interested if Serbia will stay on the EU path, adding that the opening of Chapters 32 and 35 of the EU accession talks can be expected by the end of the year.

RUDNICA - The bodies of 16 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo-Metohija (KiM), recovered at Rudnica, near Raska, were transported on Friday to the Merdare administrative crossing to be handed over to EULEX officials.

Romania has a clear and very firm position, alongside the European Union and the United States of America of support for Ukraine, as the situation of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict is building up instead of settling, Prime Minister Victor Ponta said during a visit to this eastern Romanian Danube River port city on Friday.

PM conveniently focused on issue of subsidies - analyst

BELGRADE -- Political analyst Đorše Vukadinović believes PM Aleksandar Vučić's "decision not to give subsidies for exports to Russia" means he is "fogging the essence."

SKOPJE - New Democratic Party leader and former Serbian president Boris Tadic has said that he feels guilty for failing to apologise to the people of Macedonia while in office as president for the presence of the Serbian gendarmerie in the country in the past.

Tourist trips of Bulgarians abroad have increased by 34.7% in the second quarter of 2014, as compared to the same period of 2013, according to the National Statistical Institute.

Meanwhile, a decrease was observed in the number of Bulgarian residents who traveled in the country – by 13.6%.

The income statement of the state budget was overestimated by about BGN 2 B back at the planning phase, Bulgaria's caretaker Prime Minister Georgi Bliznashki said.

Bliznashki, who assumed office on August 6, warned that the budget approved by Plamen Oresharskí's government carried a risk of "a clear problem with the [National] Revenue Agency".

MOSCOW - Serbia will increase its cheese export to Russia in two weeks, Russian Minister of Agriculture Nikolay Fyodorov said after the meeting with his Serbian counterpart Snezana Bogosavljevic Boskovic in Moscow on Thursday.