
Argentine president Mauricio Macri arrived on Monday evening to Moscow the first leg of his latest tour of European countries, and the first of 2018, with the purpose of promoting Argentina and attracting investments. In Moscow president Macri and First Lady Juliana Awada are scheduled to meet with president Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin.

Even thermometers can't keep up with the plunging temperatures in Russia's remote Yakutia region, which hit minus 67 degrees Celsius (minus 88.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas on Tuesday. In Yakutia, a region of 1 million people about 5,300 kilometers east of Moscow, students routinely go to school even in minus 40 degrees. But school was canceled on Tuesday throughout the region and police ordered parents to keep their children inside.

Argentine navy ARA Islas Malvinas, a vessel normally assigned to patrolling duties in the southern seas and supplying Argentine scientific bases and stations in Antarctica has joined the search for the submarine ARA San Juan with a crew of 44, which has gone missing for two months, since November 15, in the South Atlantic.

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.