Business Watch
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday described the absence of a peace treaty between Japan and Russia as an “abnormal situation” and expressed his readiness to resolve the long-running dispute over a group of islands off Hokkaido.
Economic relations between Russia and the European Union will continue to develop in 2013, but experts predict an increase in mutual caution in the political sphere.
Russia is about to reach a new level of partnership relations with Latin American countries. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visits Brazil and Cuba later today and on the 22nd. Important agreements and commercial contracts will be signed during these visits.
Lithuania’s trade deficit narrowed to the smallest since 2009 last year as exports to Russia surged and the U.K. imported 80 percent more fuel, food and furniture from the Baltic nation.
The conflict between the authorities and the armed opposition in Syria has been going on since March of 2011, having claimed about 60, 000 lives.
Russia has called for a second meeting of the Syria Action Group, which is made up of five countries: two permanent United Nations Security Council members and some of Syria’s neighbors in the so-called Geneva-2 meeting.
US Vice President Joe Biden told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday that Washington and Moscow should continue cooperation in various spheres despite differences.