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Bulgaria to cut Russian gas purchases by half
Bulgaria, which imports nearly all of the gas it consumes from Russia, intends to obtain 50% of its gas from other sources by the end of the year, said Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova, as cited by the Energy Ministry’s press service.
“As for natural gas, our country will continue working to diversify our sources and routes for the country,” said the minister. She added that “by the end of the year, 50% of the country’s consumption of natural gas will be diversified”, Interfax …
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Directors of all four Belarusian sugar mills arrested
The directors of all four sugar mills operating in Belarus have stopped coming to work, TUT.BY reports, citing sources.
The news outlet reports that on January 24, the director of the Gorodeya sugar refinary was removed from an aircraft on which he was about to fly to Munich. On January 27, the Director of the Slutsk Sugar Refinery “flew off on holiday”, the company claims. The head of the Skidzyel Sugar Combine “left for Minsk”, and the director of the Zhabinka Sugar Plant simply stopped …
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Dutch MPs stage boycott of Russia
Dutch MPs have refused to travel to Russia after the country denied entry to one of their colleagues, reports NOS.nl.
Sjoerd Sjoerdsma, a member of the Democrats 66 party known for his criticism of the Kremlin regime, was denied entry to Russia.
In solidarity with Sjoerdsma, members of the Foreign Affairs Committee decided to cancel their visit to Russia, which was slated for February. The committee was unanimously of the opinion that Russia has no right to interfere with the composition of …
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EU imposes sanctions against Sevastopol Governor and head of Crimean cabinet of ministers
The EU has imposed personal sanctions on the officials who were involved in the organization of elections in Crimea, including the chairman of the council of ministers of Crimea, the current governor of Sevastopol, and several members of the City Election Commission.
The EU’s Ukraine-related sanctions will now apply to seven people whose actions relating to elections the EU believes undermined or threatened the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, and whose …
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Kremlin approves law to censor emails
The Russian government has approved a bill on the state regulation of email services that was put forward by a group of senators led by Andrey Klishas in October last year.
The bill, which requires providers to identify email users by passport and to block accounts which break the law, has received positive feedback from the cabinet of ministers.
Interfax reports that the government has approved Klishas’s idea in general, but has proposed to clarify the concept of “organizers of message …