Venezuela has awarded licenses to a unit of Russian oil major Rosneft to develop two offshore gas fields, Rosneft said in a statement.Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro signed the deal during a visit to Venezuela by Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, it said.
Venezuela has pulled out of a partnership with Cuba in its Cienfuegos oil refinery and the Caribbean island has taken full ownership of the plant, Cuban state media said. Venezuela is grappling with an economic crisis that already forced it to slash cheap oil shipments to Cuba, which has had a knock-on effect on the island’s ailing economy.
Russia has sent Argentina all the necessary materials for taking part in a tender for fighter jets with its Mikoyan MiG-29 aircraft, Deputy Director of the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation Anatoly Punchuk told TASS news agency.
Russia has been banned from the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics after the IOC found evidence of an “unprecedented systematic manipulation” of the anti-doping system that has led to a series of suspensions for the country’s athletes in recent months.
An Antonov-124 Ruslan airlifter has flown a team of Russian naval specialists to Argentina where they will join the efforts to rescue the distressed submarine, ARA San Juan missing since November 15. Argentine channel Todo Noticias aired the footage of the jet’s landing.
Russia has agreed to dispatch an oceanographic ship to Argentina in order to help with the search for the missing Argentine submarine, ARA San Juan, the Argentine Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday following a telephone conversation between Russian and Argentine presidents Vladimir Putin and Mauricio Macri.
Russia and Venezuela signed a debt restructuring deal on Wednesday allowing Caracas to make minimal payments to Moscow in the next six years to help it meet obligations to other creditors, the Russian Finance Ministry said. Under the deal, Venezuela will pay Russia back a total of US$ 3.15 billion over a 10-year period, the ministry said.
By Gwynne Dyer - China Mieville, a novelist I much admire, has published a history of the October Revolution to mark its hundredth anniversary (which is actually on 7 November, since the Russians were still using the Julian calendar in 1917). It had an unusual effect on me. It made me question whether I was right about the utter futility of that revolution.
The first serially-produced Sibir nuclear-powered icebreaker, designed to reinforce Russia’s leadership in the Arctic, was commissioned last week at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg. It is one of the three vessels part of Project 22220 which are to become the world’s largest and most powerful nuclear icebreakers. The lead ship of the project, the Arktika, was commissioned last year.
United States president Donald Trump grudgingly signed into law new sanctions against Russia on Wednesday, a move Moscow said amounted to a full-scale trade war and an end to hopes for better ties with the Trump administration. Congress overwhelmingly approved the legislation last week, passing a measure that conflict with the Republican president's desire to improve relations with Moscow.