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RUSSIA

Russian military jet activity rises in Norway

Norway said on Wednesday it had observed an increasing number of Russian military jets near its airspace last year, amid President Vladimir Putin's massive rearmament plan.

The Scandinavian country scrambled fighter jets on 41 occasions to inspect Russian military aircraft flying past its airspace although the planes always stayed in international territory, the Norwegian air force said in its annual report.

A total of 71 Russian military planes were identified during the sorties, the highest since 2009, it said.

"It's important to note that none of these planes were intercepted" in Norwegian air space, said the head of the Norwegian military, Harald Sunde.

The two countries share a 196-kilometre (122-mile) border in the far north, where Russia has large military bases in the Murmansk region. Putin, who returned to the Kremlin in May, has announced an "unprecedented" Russian rearmament, vowing to pump more than 550 billion euros ($705 billion) into the defence industry over the next ten years.

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RUSSIA

Russia announces no New Year’s greetings for France, US, Germany

US President Joe Biden, France's Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not be receiving New Year's greetings from Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Friday.

Russia announces no New Year's greetings for France, US, Germany

As the world gears up to ring in the New Year this weekend, Putin sent congratulatory messages to the leaders of Kremlin-friendly countries including Turkey, Syria, Venezuela and China.

But Putin will not wish a happy New Year to the leaders of the United States, France and Germany, countries that have piled unprecedented sanctions on Moscow over Putin’s assault on Ukraine.

“We currently have no contact with them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“And the president will not congratulate them given the unfriendly actions that they are taking on a continuous basis,” he added.

Putin shocked the world by sending troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24.

While Kyiv’s Western allies refused to send troops to Ukraine, they have been supplying the ex-Soviet country with weapons in a show of support that has seen Moscow suffer humiliating setbacks on the battlefield.

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