SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned on Monday that climate change posed a "catastrophic" threat in some of the sharpest comments yet on a subject the Kremlin has often seemed reluctant to confront. Although the United States said that the consensus amongst the 19 leaders at the weekend Asia Pacific summit in Singapore was that a climate change deal this December was unlikely, Medvedev made clear he felt it was a top priority. "If we don't take joint action, the... Read Full Story
TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region, recognized as an independent state by Russia, has cut another of its ties with Georgia by adopting Russia's international dialing code. Russia recognized pro-Western Georgia's rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which rely heavily on it for economic and military backing, as independent after crushing a Georgian assault on South Ossetia last year. Abkhazia began using Russia's +7 dialing code on Sunday. "The old codes will work... Read Full Story
President Dmitry Medvedev Monday made the first ever official visit by a Russian leader to Singapore to forge stronger ties with the high-tech island as he seeks to modernize Russia's economy. The Russian delegation includes business chiefs such as Russia's former richest man and owner of aluminum giant UC Rusal Oleg Deripaska and Alexander Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Gazprom, the world's biggest gas firm. Russia -- which joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in 1998... Read Full Story
President Barack Obama on Sunday won the strongest backing yet from Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev on the Iranian nuclear crisis as the US leader warned that Tehran was "running out of time". Obama expressed frustration with Iran's failure to give an answer three weeks after it received a UN-brokered offer aimed at defusing the stand-off, while Medvedev suggested that even Russian patience was now wearing thin. "Unfortunately, so far at least, Iran has been unable to say yes" to the... Read Full Story
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Sunday time was running out for diplomacy in a dispute over Iran's nuclear program, but a top Iranian official said it was up to the West to show it sincerely wanted a deal. Russia and France, both involved in talks with Iran over what the West fears are its plans for an atomic bomb, also put pressure on Tehran, with French Foreign Bernard Kouchner saying the Islamic republic looked set to reject a U.N.-drafted accord. Obama suggested... Read Full Story
President Barack Obama on Sunday won the strongest backing yet from Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev on the Iranian nuclear crisis as the US leader warned that Tehran was "running out of time". Obama expressed frustration with Iran's failure to give an answer three weeks after it received a UN-brokered offer aimed at defusing the stand-off, while Medvedev suggested that even Russian patience was now wearing thin. "Unfortunately, so far at least, Iran has been unable to say yes" to the... Read Full Story
President Barack Obama on Sunday won the strongest backing yet from Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev on the Iranian nuclear crisis as the US leader warned that Tehran was "running out of time". Obama expressed frustration with Iran's failure to give an answer three weeks after it received a UN-brokered offer aimed at defusing the stand-off, while Medvedev suggested that even Russian patience was now wearing thin. "Unfortunately, so far at least, Iran has been unable to say yes" to the... Read Full Story
The leaders of Russia and the United States said Sunday they were on target to agree by the end of the year the text of a new treaty setting out major cuts in their nuclear weapons arsenals. But a senior White House adviser warned there was not time for the successor to the 1991 START agreement to be ratified by December 5 when the old treaty elapses, meaning a temporary bridging deal would be needed. "I expect that we can have a final text of the agreement by December," Russian President... Read Full Story
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday warned Iran it could face new sanctions if there is no progress towards easing fears over its nuclear programme. "We are prepared to work further" to ensure Iran's nuclear programme is only for peaceful purposes, he said after a meeting with his US counterpart Barack Obama. "In case we fail, the other options remain on the table, in order to move the process in a different direction," he said in a reference to new sanctions against Tehran. Under a... Read Full Story
NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin won Slovenia's approval on Saturday for the South Stream pipeline, undermining European Union efforts to reduce dependency on Russian gas supplies. The seal of approval is the latest victory for the Kremlin as it seeks to counter the long delayed Nabucco pipeline which is backed by the European Union as a way to curb dependency on Russia by pumping gas from the Caspian and the Middle East. Slovenia's approval brings the... Read Full Story
