Russia reserves right to impose further measures in case of new sanctions

Russia will take response measures in case the EU imposes new sanctions, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

“Regrettably, the European Council, despite its member countries’ interests, gives in to countries interested to implement geopolitical schemes to increase confrontation with Russia.”

“We hope the EU will be able to independently look at the situation above stereotypes of the last century and begin constructive work to help settle the internal Ukrainian conflict,” the ministry said.

If new anti-Russian sanctions are imposed, Russia reserves the right to take retaliatory measures to defend its rightful interests, it added.

European Union, Russia and Ukraine to meet again on the “gas” issue on May 30 in Berlin

Sabine Berger, spokesperson of Guenther Oettinger, European Commissioner on energy, told reporters on Thursday, 29 May 2014, that the next round of talks between the Ministers of Energy of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Ukraine and the EU on natural gas supplies from the Russian Federation would be held on Friday, May 30 in Berlin.

Gyuneter Ettinger said the other day that Ukraine was ready to pay for the Russian gas and was able to do it. The European Commissioner also noted that within the gas talks there should not be touched upon the issue of joining of the peninsula of Crimea to Russia.

Putin: the Japanese and Chinese payment systems can become patterns for the Russian one

Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that the domestic payment system can be modeled on the Japanese JCB and Chinese China UnionPay, having agreements with foreign partners, the head of state said at a meeting with the Chairman and CEO of VTB Group Andrei Kostin.

In his turn, Kostin told the president about the progress in creating a national system of payment cards. “In May, we took the first step in this direction – VTB Group has combined its system with “Joint Russian system” and thus 300 Russian banks – about a third of our banking sector – are combined into a single system,” – he said. Kostin said that Russian banks had begun to unite processing.

In his opinion, “this may become a prototype of a national system” to be set up. “This is the first important practical step that has been made in this direction,” – he said.

Lavrov: Russia and Venezuela have relations of strategic partnership

Relations between Russia and Venezuela “are multifaceted, these are the relations of strategic partnership, they cover all spheres of live of the states,” said on Thursday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, when asked about the prospects of development of bilateral relations.

“A high-level commission deals with purposeful development of trade-economic and investment ties, support of business activities, – the minister explained. – On Friday, the results of work of the intergovernmental will let us know about additional arrangements that will carry forward our strategic partnership in the field of economy.”

“The key focus of the bilateral partnership is energy. Here there are already being implemented a number of projects with regard to the oil and gas industry, exploration of oil and gas fields, including offshore fields,” – said the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Putin ordered to sign an agreement on the Eurasian Economic Union

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the signing of the Eurasian Economic Union /EAEU/. The document was published today on the official website of legal information.

The meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council at the level of Heads of State was held today in Astana, Prime agency reports.

EAEU Treaty is to become operational on the territory of the Customs Union on 1 January 2015. The Kremlin hopes that the signing of this document between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will be an important event in terms of integration development.

The work on the treaty started in November 2011 at the first summit of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council. Then the presidents of the three countries adopted a declaration on Eurasian economic integration, which has become a kind of a “road map” of the development of integration and interaction.

Putin instructed to study the prospects of gas cooperation between Russia and Kiev

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, in case of receiving payments from Ukraine, to consider what Russia is ready to do  to continue gas cooperation with Kiev.

“If the conditions on which you negotiate with partners are fulfilled, if payments begin to come in those volumes, which you agreed on, then the Russian government must decide what it is willing to do for further cooperation in the gas sector with partners in Ukraine. I ask the Prime Minister to take appropriate actions, “- said Putin at a meeting with members of the government.

The European Commission does not intend to impose restrictions on investments of Russia in the energy sector of Europe

The European Commission does not intend to impose restrictions on investments of Russia in the energy sector of Europe, said EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, presenting a new EU strategy for security of energy supplies.

“Our principle is as follows – we welcome all investors who abide by European legislation, and this is applicable to Russian investments”, – he said.

“They must meet all the standards of the EU on competition, including the requirements of the Third Energy Package, including third-party access to energy infrastructure. Moreover, it must fully comply with the European legislation on environmental protection. These rules are the same for everyone,” – Oettinger stressed.

Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan create an economic union

The presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will sign on May 29 in Astana the treaty establishing on January 1, 2015 the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), which will be the next stage of integration of the three countries of the former Soviet Union after the establishment of the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space.

The treaty establishing the EAEU combines legal framework of the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space, as well as part of the regulations of the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC), which do not contradict more recent agreements in the framework of the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space, the Eurasian Economic Commission for Europe supervising the 20 – year process of integration explained ITAR-TASS.

According to the draft of the new document – the EAEU Treaty, on the territory of three countries there will be gradually set a regime of free movement of goods, capital, labor, services, and equal access to transport and energy infrastructure, and the general rules of customs and tariff regulation. At later stages, in addition to the Eurasian Economic Commission it is planned to establish a Commission on commodities, International Eurasian arbitration, EAEU Investment Bank and a number of other structures. By the end of 2014 Armenia and Kyrgyzstan will join the EAEU.

New rules for the export of the Crimean defense-industrial complex

The Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation has prepared a draft presidential decree, stating the order of import and export of military goods under contracts signed before the Crimea became part of Russia. Under the new rules “Rosoboronexport” will be the mediator between the defense-industrial complex of the Republic of Crimea, the federal city of Sevastopol and their foreign customers.

“Rosoboronexport” and FSMTC will help the defense enterprises of Crimea and Sevastopol to fulfill obligations under contracts concluded before the peninsula joined to Russia.

FSMTC prepared a draft presidential decree stating the order of import and export of military products produced under such contracts.

There are about 30 defense companies on the Crimean peninsula.

SPIEF-2014 results: 160 agreements for 268 billion rubles

Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev summarized two days of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

“At the site of the Forum for two days there were signed 160 agreements with Russian and foreign companies, including 11 agreements on investment projects in various sectors of the economy totaling 268,881 billion rubles,” – said the head of the Ministry of Economic Development.

During two days of the Forum, which was held under the motto “Building trust in an era of change” there were held 71 main events on the program.

In addition, for the first time at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2014 there were held three sessions of the Summit of global business leaders (Global CEO Summit), organized by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

“The events of the two days of the Forum were attended by about 7,400 guests, among them 129 heads of major foreign and 485 heads of Russian companies,” – said the Minister of Economic Development. Among the participating countries are the key regions of the world: BRICS countries, the United States, European Union, Middle East, Japan, Australia, CIS.