Moscow

From Financial Times

By Christian Oliver in Brussels and Jack Farchy in Moscow

Gazprom has accused the EU of applying double standards to block its landmark gas pipeline into Europe in a case that looks increasingly likely to spiral into an acrimonious legal showdown.

Over 20 Ukrainian army personnel have been killed during the special operation in the east of the country, Ukraine's acting Defense Minister Mykhailo Koval said.

According to Minister Koval, the standoff has claimed the lives of two helicopter crews, and several paratroopers, Russian Ria Novosti informs.

The sons of two Russian politicians sanctioned by the EU over the Ukraine crisis are carrying out their business activity in Bulgaria, according to the daily Trud.

Alexey Kozak, whose father is Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, and Russian Parliament Legal Committee Chairman Vladimir Pligin's son Aleksander both own enterprises based in the Black Sea city of Varna.

MOSCOW, May 30 (Tanjug) - Russia has sent another 33 tons of relief aid to Serbia, the spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations Alexander Drobyshevsky said on Friday.

A Russian Ilyushin-76 plane carrying 33 tons of aid for flood-hit regions in Serbia took off for Belgrade early Friday, he said.

Russian police detained ten people suspected of plotting a terrorist attack in the Moscow region which was to be perpetrated on May 9, Victory Day.

The leader of pro-Moscow insurgents in the city of Slavyansk in eastern Ukraine confirmed Thursday that his forces had detained four observers from the European security body OSCE but would release them.
      

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday arrived in the Kazakh capital where he was set to sign a deal with his Kazakh and Belarussian counterparts creating a new economic union championed by Moscow.
      
Putin, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev were due to sign the document in Astana following talks on Thursday.

Fugitive self-proclaimed spy Edward Snowden said Wednesday he wants to return home, as he defended his massive leak of US intelligence secrets, saying abuses of constitutional rights left him no choice.
      

Turkey is deeply concerned over the “abduction” of four observers of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), including a Turkish citizen, by “unknown persons” near the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on May 26, the Foreign Ministry has stated.

Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked details of massive U.S. intelligence-gathering programs, said in a U.S. TV interview he "was trained as a spy" and had worked undercover overseas for U.S. government agencies.