From our newsroom:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has discussed energy cooperation via phone with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The Kremlin said Putin discussed "prospects of further interaction in the energy sector" in light of Russia's announcement last week to end the South Stream natural gas pipeline project.
The pipeline would have gone under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and later delivered gas to both Hungary and Serbia.
Belgrade had given strong support for the project, which the European Union said was in violation of some of the EU's antimonopoly laws.
Putin had said that Russia may instead build a pipeline to Turkey and create a gas hub near the Turkish-Greek border to supply gas to Europe.
Orban was criticized by U.S. Senator John McCain (Republican-Arizona) last week for "getting in bed with Vladimir Putin."
Based on reporting by Reuters and Interfax
Downright silly. Leontyev's interview starts one minute in:
Reuters flash: PUTIN DISCUSSES ENERGY COOPERATION WITH SERBIAN PRESIDENT, HUNGARIAN PM IN LIGHT OF SOUTH STREAM PIPELINE SHUTDOWN-KREMLIN
Ukrainian local authorities say five civilians have been killed over the past day, three in overnight shelling that also injured 10 other people in rebel-held Donetsk and two others when a shell struck a home in the village of Kyiakivka, in Luhansk region, AFP reports.
Interfax quotes the chairman of the Russian State Duma's international affairs committee, Aleksei Pushkov, as "twitting" of French President Francois Hollande, who met with Putin yesterday:
"Hollande who remained in the shadow in relation to Ukraine so far stepped out and demonstrated his character - he came to Moscow in very good time to meet Putin," Pushkov twitted.
I couldn't find the original "twit," however.
From Reuters:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel accused Russia on Sunday of interfering in the domestic affairs of numerous countries that are seeking closer ties to the European Union.
"Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine are three countries in our eastern neighbourhood that have taken sovereign decisions to sign an association agreement with the EU," Merkel told German daily Die Welt in an interview.
"Russia is creating problems for all three of these countries," she said, pointing to "frozen conflicts" in breakaway regions like Transdniestria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as Russian interference in eastern Ukraine.
That concludes our live blogging for Saturday, December 6.
From TASS:
A criminal case for the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada deputies Yuri Beryoza, Andrei Levus and Igor Mosiychuk will be opened in Chechnya at the instruction of its President Ramzan Kadyrov.
"In connection with new circumstances I ordered to take exceptional measures for detention and delivery to Chechnya of these persons and the criminal Isa Munayev," Kadyrov wrote on one of his pages in social networks. "It's important now to probe into the role they might have played in the events in Grozny."
It was unclear what "role" he might be referring to.
Here are our latest stories on that attack:
Was The Insurgent Attack On Grozny A Trial Run?
and
Dozens Killed, Wounded In Chechen Attack