Luxembourg - Top European Union diplomats on Monday dismissed as "nonsense" a claim by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the EU is planning to build a sphere of influence in the former Soviet Union, just 24 hours before a meeting with him. On March 21, Lavrov said that the EU was trying to build a "sphere of influence" in Eastern Europe by setting up a so-called "Eastern Partnership" with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Moscow - Anatoly Pakhomov, the Kremlin-backed candidate, won a landslide victory in the race for the mayor's post in Sochi, host city of the Olympic Winter Games 2014, news reports said Monday.

The Itar-Tass news agency, quoting election officials, said with about 80 per cent of the votes counted, Pakhomov had won 77 per cent of the vote. Opposition candidate Boris Nemtsov came second with 13.5 per cent, followed by the Communist candidate Yuri Dzaganiya.

Oslo - A Russian trawler sank Friday off northern Norway but the crew w

Hong Kong - Hong Kong is to give visa-free access to Russian travellers in a bid to tap into new markets in the light of the current economic downturn, officials confirmed Friday. The 14-day visa-free access is expected to come into force later this year following an agreement between Russia and Hong Kong signed Thursday which also gives Hong Kong passport holders 14 days of visa-free access to Russia.

Moscow - Russia is disappointed over US President Barack Obama's lack of readiness to compromise in the dispute over the anti- ballistic missile system planned for Central Europe, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov was quoted by local media as saying Wednesday.

"The US has not revised its plans (after the change of president) but instead intensified them," Ryabkov said in an interview with the newspaper Vremya Novostey.

Brussels - Russia is welcome to send observers to a set of NATO military exercises in Georgia which have provoked outrage in Moscow, but it has so far shown no interest in doing so, NATO's top spokesman told journalists on Wednesday.

"If Russia chooses to send observers, I think the alliance would look on it quite positively," James Appathurai said in Brussels.