Maria Kiselyova News

Russia's Foreign Ministry accused Ukraine on Friday of a "provocation" over an incident involving a Ukrainian warship near the Kerch Strait, the RIA news agency reported.Ukraine has dismissed the Russian complaints as part of a Russian "information attack" on Kyiv.Russia's Federal Security Service said on Thursday that a Ukrainian vessel had headed towards the Kerch Strait that separates Russia and its annexed peninsula of Crimea, and did not react to a Russian request to change its course.The Ukrainian vessel later headed back, it said.(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; writing by Tom Balmforth;

Russia's Energy Ministry is due to prepare a report in the coming days about the possibility of Rosneft exporting natural gas to Europe via the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Interfax cited Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak as saying on Wednesday.Currently, Kremlin-controlled Gazprom has exclusive rights for Russian pipeline gas exports.Novak said this month that Rosneft had asked the government for permission to export natural gas and the government was reviewing the request.The…

Russia’s defense ministry said on Tuesday it would hold naval drills in the Caspian Sea with small missile and artillery ships from Iran, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan in early September.(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Alison Williams)

There are only 15 km (9 miles) left to finish the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany that bypasses Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.The $11 billion project doubling the capacity of the first Nord Stream pipeline to 110 billion cubic meters a year has been a focal point of tensions between Moscow and the West.Despite U.S. sanctions, Nord Stream 2 is almost complete and the key question is how Russia will ship its gas to Europe once a current…

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea is almost complete with just 100 kilometers (62 miles) left to build, TASS news agency quoted Russian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak as saying on Thursday."We hope that construction works on Nord Stream 2 will be completed by the end of this year," Novak told reporters of progress on the pipeline, which will allow Russia to ship more gas to Western Europe while bypassing Ukraine.The United States last month waived sanctions on the company behind the pipeline to Germany, a move opposed by critics of the project in the U.S.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that new U.S. sanctions targeting Nord Stream 2 could complicate the completion of the stalled Russian gas pipeline to Germany, but that Moscow and European nations had an interest in it being built.Senior Trump administration officials said on Wednesday that Washington was urging European allies and private companies to halt work that could help build the pipeline and was preparing wider sanctions on the Russian project in coming weeks.The Nord Stream 2 resumed laying pipes in the German zone of the Baltic Sea this month and is expected to start work in Danish waters from Jan 15.(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov and Maria Kiselyova; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Katya Golubkova)

A Russian fishing trawler capsized and sank in the freezing waters of the northern Barents Sea on Monday, with 17 of its 19 crew members feared dead.The Emergency Situations Ministry attributed the sinking to a heavy build-up of ice on the trawler, which sank off the coast of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.It said two crew members had been rescued by another fishing boat in the area and that searches to try to recover the rest of the crew were ongoing."Chances of survival in such conditions…

Sovcomflot's shares fell below their offer price in their market debut in Moscow on Wednesday after the initial public offering (IPO) of Russia's biggest shipping company was priced at the lower end of its range.Sovcomflot's IPO, the first share offering by a Russian state company since 2013, will allow the government to reduce its stake to 82.8% following the sale of new shares worth about $550 million.The deal was priced at 105 roubles ($1.34) per share, at the lower end of the initial guidance of between 105 roubles and 117 roubles per share…

Britain's Royal Navy said on Monday one of its warships had helped to seize a batch of crystal meth worth more than 3.3 million pounds ($4.3 million) from smugglers in the Gulf of Oman.HMS Defender, a destroyer based at Portsmouth, southern England, sent a party to search a suspicious dhow as it conducted reconnaissance in the northern Arabian Sea.Royal marines discovered on the dhow 11 mailbag-sized sacks carrying drugs weighing 131 kg (288 lb) in total, the Royal Navy said in…

Russia on Monday handed back three naval ships it captured last year to Ukraine, something Kiev wanted to happen before a four-way peace summit on eastern Ukraine next month in Paris.The handover, confirmed by the two countries' foreign ministries, occurred in the Black Sea off the coast of Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.Russia seized the ships in the same area in November last year after opening fire on them and wounding several sailors. Moscow said the ships - two small Ukrainian armoured artillery vessels and a tug boat - had illegally entered its territorial waters. Kiev denied that.Russia returned the sailors…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday invited foreign investors to take part in the construction of port infrastructure in Murmansk and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky that would serve the Northern Sea Route.Speaking at an Arctic forum in the Russian city of St Petersburg, Putin also asked the government to draw up plans for tax relief that would promote the development of the Arctic region."We invite our foreign partners to joint work to create port hubs at the end points of the (Northern Sea) route," Putin said.(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Tom Balmforth; edi

Eleven people on a river cruise were killed when their boat collided with a tugboat late on Monday in the Russian city of Volgograd, which is hosting matches in the soccer World Cup, rescue services said.Emergencies services received notification at around 10 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Monday that the vessels had collided on the Volga River, about 250 meters from the riverbank.There were 16 people on board the pleasure craft, all of them Russians, the RIA news agency cited the local administration as saying.Five people had been rescued…

Azeri state oil company SOCAR and Norway's Equinor on Wednesday signed a risk service contract for the development of the Karabakh offshore oil and natural gas field in the Caspian Sea.The two companies also signed a product-sharing agreement for Ashrafi, Dan-Ulduzu and Aypara exploration area."The agreements signed today represent a natural next step in the region. This will strengthen our position in a prolific basin and develop growth options," Equinor Chief Executive Eldar Saetre said in a statement.To operate the licences, Equinor and SOCAR will form a 50-50 joint operating company.

Russia is in talks with Asian investors on the privatisation of state shipping company Sovcomflot, the RIA news agency cited Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov as saying on Tuesday.   The government does not rule out other forms of the company's privatisation apart from an initial public offering, the agency quoted Shuvalov as saying. (Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Maria Kiselyova)

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told a visiting delegation of Turkish ministers on Tuesday that it expected Ankara to lift restrictions on Russian grain exports to Turkey, the Russian government said in a statement. Russian and Turkish ministers meeting in Moscow on Tuesday reached "a common understanding" that further work was needed to resolve differences over trade, and agreed to hold intensive consultations over the next two weeks, the statement said. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek…

Energy giant Rosneft said on Thursday its trading arm had delivered an inaugural gasoline cargo to the Asia-Pacific, marking what could be Russia's first foray into a region dominated by OPEC producers from the Gulf. The 200,000-barrel cargo, bought by Rosneft from the international market and taken by Indonesian state energy company Pertamina, was delivered on free-on-board (FOB) terms to Malaysia. Rosneft declined to say from which refinery it had received the cargo. It also did not say from or to which ports it was being delivered. The cargo was shipped to Pertamina within a term agreement for the delivery of 1.2 million barrels signed between the companies in June, Rosneft said.

Russia's top natural gas producer Gazprom said on Thursday it had reached an agreement with Turkey to start gas supplies via the planned Turkish Stream pipeline in December 2016. Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexei Miller met Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz in Ankara on Thursday, Gazprom said in a statement. Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Vladimir Soldatkin

Russia's biggest oil producer Rosneft will continue drilling in the Arctic Kara Sea on its own after the departure of its partner, U.S. oil major ExxonMobil, due to sanctions, the company's head Igor Sechin said on Friday. "We will continue drilling in any case, on our own, always and everywhere. If partners can take part - that's good, if they can't - we will carry on alone," Sechin told reporters. Exxon earlier suspended cooperation with Rosneft in the Arctic due to U.S. sanctions over Moscow's involvement in the conflict in Ukraine.

Russia's Novatek may get funds from the National Wealth Fund for its Yamal LNG project before the year-end, a minister said, as part of government plans to support sanction-hit companies. Russia's No.2 gas producer, co-owned by an ally of President Vladimir Putin, Gennady Timchenko, was put on the Western sanctions list over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis, limiting its ability to raise funds in Western markets. The government has pledged to support sanctions-hit companies irrespective of their shareholder structure, using National Wealth Fund as one of the options. Under the plan, NWF may buy bonds issued by some of such firms.

Russia's biggest oil producer Rosneft said on Saturday that Exxon Mobil was still continuing exploration drilling at their joint project in the Arctic Kara Sea. "The work on the University well is continuing according to plan. We are satisfied with the decision of the U.S. regulator which gave the relevant permission to Exxon," Larisa Kalanda, a vice president of Rosneft, told reporters. Exxon said on Friday that the U.S. Treasury Department gave it a short extension to wind down a rig at the well, beyond the 14 days outlined in the sanctions targeting Western cooperation with Russia's oil sector in response to Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Writing by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Russia's Gazprom assured European customers it would continue to supply their gas, after its threat to halts supplies to transit nation Ukraine next month over non-payment. Any shortfall would be the fault of Ukraine, chief executive Alexei Miller told Russian television. Moscow blamed theft by Ukraine for a disruption to exports in a previous dispute. Russia has warned that it will not supply Ukraine with gas in June unless Kiev pays in advance $1.66 billion by June 2, raising fears that gas piped to Europe through Ukraine could be affected. "Gazprom will simply supply Ukraine as much as gas as it will have bought, and to the Russian border with Ukraine we will send as much gas as Europe should get and Ukraine should transit," Miller said in an interview on Rossiya-24 television.