Eurasia

MOSCOW – Europe’s election watchdog complained on Tuesday of “serious restrictions” in the invitation it has received to monitor Russia’s March 2 presidential poll.

PENZA, Russia – Who looks like President Vladimir Putin, speaks and moves like Putin — but is not the man himself? Step forward Dmitry Medvedev, Putin’s chosen successor for the top Kremlin job.

MOSCOW – Russia warned the United States and European Union on Monday that it would take a series of unidentified measures if Serbia’s breakaway province of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence.

MOSCOW – A self-styled tsar, four empresses and scores of other eccentrics have sought to register for Russian presidential elections in March, the country’s elections chief said on Monday.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran received the eighth and last consignment of nuclear fuel from Russia on Monday for the Islamic Republic’s first atomic power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran began pumping natural gas to Turkey on Sunday after cutting supplies for three weeks.

MOSCOW – Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov was barred on Sunday from running for president in a March election, a move he said was taken to block any real challenge to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s chosen candidate.

MOSCOW – Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on Sunday denounced a decision to bar him from running in a March 2 election for president, saying it showed that Russia was sliding towards dictatorship.

NAZRAN, Russia – Russian riot police fired warning shots into the air and beat demonstrators who tried to rally on Saturday against alleged vote-rigging in the Muslim region of Ingushetia, a witness said.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Moscow hopes to have a rail connection with Iran, Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin recently remarked in Yerevan.