Russia

"Americans pressuring South Stream countries"

BELGRADE -- South Stream will be built, and as early as in 2016 Serbia will begin to receive substantial budget revenues from the pipeline, says Sergei Naryshkin.

All 7 kidnapped observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, who were held by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine since 25 April, were freed, Saturday.

Five Ukrainian officers taken with them were also freed, according to Russian media reports.

An elderly Russian Communist Party activist takes part in the traditional May Day rally in front of the Bolshoi Theatre in central Moscow Thursday.

By Nikos Konstandaras

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Russia was responsible for the "distraction, deception and destabilization" of events in eastern Ukraine.

Kerry hailed the record of Kiev's interim authorities, asserting they had been abiding by April 17's Geneva accord to wind down tensions in Ukraine.

Sweden´s government has announced plans to increase the budget share of defense in the years to come until 2024.

The country´s number of aircraft and submarines is to be increased, and military presence in the Baltic sea is to be bolstered, according to the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Russia issued a blanket ban on foreign trips for its law enforcement and military personnel, reports LifeNews.ru. 

The list includes Bulgaria, USA, Canada, UK, Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Japan, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, etc. The number of off limits countries totals 150. 

Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev spoke out against the futile "exchange of black lists" with the West on the crisis in Ukraine.

BELGRADE - Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic signed the decrees on decorations for the Military Medical Academy and 42 members of the Defence Ministry and the Armed Forces of the Republic of Serbia.

US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) reaches out to shake hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the start of a bilateral meeting to discuss the ongoing situation in Ukraine in Geneva April 17.

By Ian Bremmer *

Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is in the Crimean capital Simferopol on Monday.

This is the highest ranking Russian official to visit the autonomous region, since the referendum on March 16, when Crimea voted to split from Ukraine and join Russia.