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Russian, Turkish ministers talk after Turkey sends Ukrainian commanders home

Russian, Turkish ministers talk after Turkey sends Ukrainian commanders home

THE foreign ministers of Russia and Turkey spoke by telephone, a day after Ankara angered Moscow by sending five Ukrainian commanders home with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in what Russia called a violation of a prisoner exchange agreement. The Russian and Turkish foreign ministries said Sergei Lavrov and Hakan Fidan discussed the situation in Ukraine, as well as a Black Sea grain export agreement that lifted a Russian de facto blockade of Ukrainian ports last year. Moscow has threatened to quit the grain export deal when it comes up for renewal on July 17, saying demands to facilitate sales of its…
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Lavrov warns West: Black Sea grain deal is in danger of collapse

Lavrov warns West: Black Sea grain deal is in danger of collapse

RUSSIA warned the West that a deal allowing Ukrainian grain to be exported from the Black Sea would cease unless a United Nations agreement aimed at overcoming obstacles to Russian grain and fertiliser exports was fulfilled. The United Nations and Turkey brokered the Black Sea deal for an initial 120 days in July last year to help tackle a global food crisis that has been aggravated by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, one of the world's leading grain exporters. Russia has repeatedly warned it will allow the deal to expire because of obstacles to its own exports of grain and fertiliser…
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Russia says 500 Americans to be banned, list includes Obama

Russia says 500 Americans to be banned, list includes Obama

RUSSIA'S foreign ministry said former President Barack Obama was among 500 U.S. citizens who would be banned in response to the latest round of sanctions announced by Washington. The ministry also said Russia had refused the latest U.S. request for consular access to detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested in March on suspicion of spying. This move was triggered by the U.S. refusal last month to give visas to media travelling with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the United Nations, it said in a statement. "Washington should have learned a long time ago that not a single hostile…
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South Africa rejects U.S. accusations of arms shipment to Russia

South Africa rejects U.S. accusations of arms shipment to Russia

SOUTH African officials hit back at U.S. accusations that a sanctioned Russian ship had collected weapons from a naval base near Cape Town late last year, a move investors fear could lead Washington to impose sanctions. The U.S. ambassador to South Africa said on Thursday he was confident that a Russian ship uploaded weapons from the Simon's Town base in December, suggesting the incident was not in line with Pretoria's stance of neutrality in the Ukraine conflict. Western diplomats were alarmed at South Africa carrying out naval exercises with Russia and China this year and at the timing of a visit by Russian Foreign…
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Battle for Africa: Russia accuses US of meeting sabotage

Battle for Africa: Russia accuses US of meeting sabotage

RONALD POPESKI THE U.S. is trying to wreck Russia's planned summit with African countries as part of efforts to isolate Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview. Lavrov told the news site Argumenty i Fakty that Moscow was different from Western countries in its relations with Africa in that "we never tell our foreign partners how they are supposed to live. We have no secret agenda." Moscow is preparing for its second summit with African countries, scheduled for the end of July in St. Petersburg, including work on infrastructure, technology and energy projects. "It is true that the…
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Analysis: Southern Africa calls the tune as great power suitors queue up

Analysis: Southern Africa calls the tune as great power suitors queue up

TIM COCKS and CARIEN DUPLESSIS SOUTH Africa and its neighbours were at the centre of a tussle for influence this week when top Russian and U.S. officials visited, offering a rare moment of leverage for governments on a continent more used to being buffeted by events than wooed. With a war in Europe pitting invading Russian forces against Ukraine's army supplied with Western arms, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen were both on the hunt for broader international support. For the countries of southern Africa, which maintain strong ideological and historical sympathies for Russia but…
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SA defends military exercise with Russia

SA defends military exercise with Russia

CARIEN DU PLESSIS SOUTH Africa's foreign minister deflected criticism of joint military drills planned with Russia and China, saying that hosting such exercises with "friends" was the "natural course of relations". Naledi Pandor made her comments during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was visiting South Africa 11 months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. A South African official, who declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak, said Lavrov would afterwards visit Eswatini, Botswana and Angola. South Africa is one of Russia's most important allies on a continent divided over the invasion and Western attempts to…
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Russia declares expanded war goals beyond Ukraine’s Donbas

Russia declares expanded war goals beyond Ukraine’s Donbas

RUSSIAN Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow's military "tasks" in Ukraine now went beyond the eastern Donbas region, in the clearest acknowledgement yet that it has expanded its war goals. In an interview with state media nearly five months after Russia's invasion, the foreign minister also said peace talks made no sense at the moment because Western governments were leaning on Ukraine to fight rather than negotiate. Ukraine's foreign minister retorted that Russia wanted "blood, not talks". When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, President Vladimir Putin explicitly denied any intention of occupying his neighbour. He said then that…
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UK sanctions Russian President Vladimir Putin’s daughters

UK sanctions Russian President Vladimir Putin’s daughters

BRITAIN added Vladimir Putin's daughters to its sanctions list, mirroring moves by the United States, in what it said was an effort to target the lifestyles of those in the Russian president's inner circle. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Britain and other Western allies have announced several waves of sanctions targetting Moscow's wealthy elites, key industries and its access to the international financial system. An update to Britain's sanctions list announced asset freezes on Putin's adult daughters Katerina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova, and Sergeyevna Vinokurova, the daughter of foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. All three were sanctioned by the United…
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